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 2,19 Spr 2,19
So I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart,That they might walk in their own counsels.
But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light,That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
And I find more bitter than death the woman {Or, who is a snare, and her heart is as nets}whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us:
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are {Hebrew: taught.}accustomed to do evil.
I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your {Or, daughter-in-law}brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go apart with harlots, and they sacrifice with the prostitutes; and the people that doth not understand shall be overthrown.
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
And when the disciples heard it, they were astonished exceedingly, saying, Who then can be saved?
And Jesus looking upon them said to them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.