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Proverbs 5
My son, attend to my wisdom;
Incline your ear to my understanding:
2 That you may preserve discretion.
And that your lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey,
And her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
Her steps take hold on Sheol;
6 So that she finds not the level path of life:
Her ways are unstable, and she knows it not.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me,
And depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her,
And come not near the door of her house;
9 Lest you give your honor to others,
And your years to the cruel;
10 Lest strangers be filled with your strength,
And your labors be in the house of an alien,
11 And you mourn at your latter end,
When your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction,
And my heart despised reproof;
13 Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me!
14 I was well-nigh in all evil
In the middle of the assembly and congregation.
15 Drink waters out of your own cistern,
And running waters out of your own well.
16 Should your springs be dispersed abroad,
And streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be for yourself alone,
And not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed;
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 As a loving hind and a pleasant doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
And be ravished always with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman,
And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yahweh;
And he makes level all his paths.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked,
And he shall be held with the cords of his sin.
23 He shall die for lack of instruction;
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Proverbs 6
My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor,
If you have struck your hands for a stranger;
2 You are snared with the words of your mouth,
You are taken with the words of your mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself,
Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor;
4 Give not sleep to your eyes,
Nor slumber to your eyelids;
5 Deliver yourself as a roe from the hand of the hunter,
And as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; Consider her ways, and be wise:
7 Which having no chief, Overseer, or ruler,
8 Provides her bread in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.
9 How long will you sleep, O sluggard?
When will you arise out of your sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep:
11 So shall your poverty come as a robber,
And your want as an armed man.
12 A worthless person, a man of iniquity,
Is he that walks with a perverse mouth;
13 Who winks with his eyes, that speaks with his feet,
That makes signs with his fingers;
14 In whose heart is perverseness,
Who devises evil continually,
Who sows discord.
15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly;
On a sudden shall he be broken, and that without remedy,
16 There are six things which Yahweh hates;
Yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood;
18 A heart that devises wicked purposes,
Feet that are swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that utters lies,
And he that sows discord among brethren.
20 My son, keep the commandment of your father,
And forsake not the law of your mother:
21 Bind them continually upon your heart;
Tie them about your neck.
22 When you walk, it shall lead you;
When you sleep, it shall watch over you;
And when you awake, it shall talk with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light;
And reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
24 To keep you from the evil woman,
From the flattery of the foreigner’s tongue.
25 Lust not after her beauty in your heart;
Neither let her take you with her eyelids.
26 For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a piece of bread;
And the adulteress hunts for the precious life.
27 Can a man take fire in his bosom,
And his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can one walk upon hot coals,
And his feet not be scorched?
29 So he that goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
Whoever touches her shall not be unpunished.
30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steals
To satisfy himself when he is hungry:
31 But if he is found, he shall restore sevenfold;
He shall give all the substance of his house.
32 He that commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding;
He who does it would destroy his own soul.
33 Wounds and dishonor shall he get;
And his reproach shall not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy is the rage of a man;
And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35 He will not regard any ransom;
Neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.
Proverbs 7
My son, keep my words,
And lay up my commandments with you.
2 Keep my commandments and live;
And my law as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind them upon your fingers;
Write them upon the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister;
And call understanding your kinswoman:
5 That they may keep you from the strange woman,
From the foreigner that flatters with her words.
6 For at the window of my house
I looked forth through my lattice:
7 And I beheld among the simple ones,
I discerned among the youths,
A young man void of understanding.
8 Passing through the street near her corner;
And he went the way to her house,
9 In the twilight, in the evening of the day,
In the middle of the night and in the darkness.
10 And, behold, there met him a woman
With the attire of a harlot, and wily of heart.
11 She is clamorous and wilful;
Her feet remain not in her house:
12 Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places,
And lies in wait at every corner.
13 So she caught him, and kissed him,
And with an impudent face she said to him:
14 Sacrifices of peace-offerings are with me;
This day have I paid my vows
15 Therefore I came forth to meet you,
Diligently to seek your face, and I have found you.
16 I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry,
With striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
17 I have perfumed my bed
With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning;
Let us solace ourselves with loves.
19 For the man is not at home;
He is gone a long journey:
20 He has taken a bag of money with him;
He will come home at the full moon.
21 With her much fair speech she causes him to yield;
With the flattering of her lips she forces him along.
22 He goes after her straightway
As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as one in fetters to the correction of the fool;
23 Till an arrow strike through his liver;
As a bird hurries to the snare,
And knows not that it is for his life.
24 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me,
And attend to the words of my mouth.
25 Let not your heart decline to her ways;
Go not astray in her paths.
26 For she has cast down many wounded:
Yes, all her killed are a mighty host.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol,
Going down to the chambers of death.
Proverbs 8
Does not wisdom cry,
And understanding put forth her voice?
2 On the top of high places by the way,
Where the paths meet, she stands;
3 Beside the gates, at the entry of the city,
At the coming in at the doors, she cries aloud:
4 To you, O men, I call;
And my voice is to the sons of men.
5 O you simple, understand prudence;
And, you fools, be of an understanding heart.
6 Hear, for I will speak excellent things;
And the opening of my lips shall be right things.
7 For my mouth shall utter truth;
And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness;
There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.
9 They are all plain to him that understands,
And right to them that find knowledge.
10 Receive my instruction, and not silver;
And knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies;
And all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
12 I wisdom have made prudence my dwelling,
And find out knowledge and discretion.
13 The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil:
Pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way,
And the perverse mouth, do I hate.
14 Counsel is mine, and sound knowledge:
I am understanding; I have might.
15 By me kings reign,
And princes decree justice.
16 By me princes rule,
And nobles, even all the judges of the earth,
17 I love them that love me;
And those that seek me diligently shall find me.
18 Riches and honor are with me;
Yes, durable wealth and righteousness.
19 My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold;
And my revenue than choice silver.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness,
In the middle of the paths of justice;
21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance,
And that I may fill their treasuries.
22 Yahweh possessed me in the beginning of his way,
Before his works of old.
23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning,
Before the earth was.
24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth,
When there were no fountains increasing with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills was I brought forth:
26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields,
Nor the beginning of the dust of the world.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there:
When he set a circle upon the face of the deep,
28 When he made firm the skies above,
When the fountains of the deep became strong.
29 When he gave to the sea its bound,
That the waters should not transgress his commandment,
When he marked out the foundations of the earth;
30 Then I was by him, as a master workman:
And I was daily his delight,
Rejoicing always before him,
31 Rejoicing in his habitable earth;
And my delight was with the sons of men.
32 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me;
For blessed are they that keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction, and be wise,
And refuse it not.
34 Blessed is the man that hears me,
Watching daily at my gates,
Waiting at the posts of my doors.
35 For whoever finds me finds life,
And shall obtain favor of Yahweh.
36 But he that sins against me wrongs his own soul:
All they that hate me love death.