My son, if thou wilt receive my words,
And lay up my commandments with thee;
So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom,
And apply thy heart to understanding;
Yea, if thou cry after discernment,
And lift up thy voice for understanding;
If thou seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hid treasures:
Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah,
And find the knowledge of God.
For Jehovah giveth wisdom;
Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding:
He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright;
{Or, And a shield for &c.}He is a shield to them that walk in integrity;
{Or, That they may keep}That he may guard the paths of justice,
{Or, Yea he preserveth}And preserve the way of his saints.
Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice,
And equity, yea, every good path.
For wisdom shall enter into thy heart,
And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;
Discretion shall watch over thee;
Understanding shall keep thee:
To deliver thee from the way of {Or, the evil man}evil,
From the men that speak perverse things;
Who forsake the paths of uprightness,
To walk in the ways of darkness;
Who rejoice to do evil,
And delight in the perverseness of {Or, the evil man}evil;
Who are crooked in their ways,
And wayward in their paths:
To deliver thee from the strange woman,
Even from the foreigner that {Hebrew: maketh smooth her words.}flattereth with her words;
That forsaketh the {Or, guide}friend of her youth,
And forgetteth the covenant of her God:
For {Or, she sinketh down unto death, which is her house}her house inclineth unto death,
And her paths unto {Or, the shades Hebrew: Rephaim.}the dead;
None that go unto her return again,
Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:
That thou mayest walk in the way of good men,
And keep the paths of the righteous.
For the upright shall dwell in the {Or, earth}land,
And the perfect shall remain in it.
But the wicked shall be cut off from the {Or, earth}land,
And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.
Querverweise zu Sprüche 2,15 Spr 2,15
They have {Or, corrupted themselves, they &c.}dealt corruptly with him, they are not his children, {Or, but a blot upon them}it is their blemish;They are a perverse and crooked generation.
But as for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways,Jehovah will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.Peace be upon Israel.
Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come {Or, as otherwise read, for a witness for ever}for ever and ever.
For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the {Or, teaching}law of Jehovah;
that say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits,
get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely thereon;
therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly in an instant.
The way of peace they know not; and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein doth not know peace.
that ye may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are seen as {Greek: luminaries. Wisd. 13:2; compare Revelation 21:11}lights in the world,