Proverbs 1
1
Why Proverbs Is Important
1These are the wise words of Solomon son of David. Solomon was king of Israel.
2They teach wisdom and self-control.
They give understanding.
3They will teach you how to be wise and self-controlled.
They will teach you what is honest and fair and right.
4They give the ability to think to those with little knowledge.
They give knowledge and good sense to the young.
5Wise people should also listen to them and learn even more.
Even they can find good advice in these words.
6Then they will be able to understand wise words and stories.
They will understand the words of wise men and their riddles.
7Knowledge begins with respect for the Lord.
But foolish people hate wisdom and discipline.
Warnings Against Evil
8My child, listen to your father’s teaching.
And do not forget your mother’s advice.
9Their teaching will beautify your life.
It will be like flowers in your hair or a chain around your neck.
10My child, sinners will try to lead you into sin.
But do not follow them.
11They might say, “Come with us.
Let’s ambush and kill someone.
Let’s attack some harmless person just for fun.
12Let’s swallow them alive, as death does.
Let’s swallow them whole, as the grave does.
13We will take all kinds of valuable things.
We will fill our houses with what we steal.
14Come join us,
and we will share with you what we steal.”
15My child, do not go along with them.
Do not do what they do.
16They run to do evil.
They are quick to kill.
17It is useless to spread out a net
right where the birds can see it!
18These men are setting their own trap.
They will only catch themselves!
19All greedy people end up this way.
Greed takes away the life of the greedy person.
Wisdom Speaks
20Wisdom is like a good woman who shouts in the street.
She raises her voice in the city squares.
21She cries out in the noisy street.
She makes her speech at the city gates:
22“You foolish people! How long do you want to stay foolish?
How long will you make fun of wisdom?
How long will you hate knowledge?
23Listen when I correct you.
I will tell you what’s in my heart.
I will tell you what I am thinking.
24I called, but you refused to listen.
I held out my hand, but you paid no attention.
25You did not follow my advice.
You did not want me to correct you.
26So I will laugh when you are in trouble.
I will make fun when disaster happens to you.
27Disaster will come over you like a storm.
Trouble will strike you like a whirlwind.
Pain and trouble will overwhelm you.
28“Then you will call out to me.
But I will not answer.
You will look for me.
But you will not find me.
29You rejected knowledge.
You did not choose to respect the Lord.
30You did not accept my advice.
You rejected my correction.
31So you will get what you deserve.
You will get what you planned for others.
32Fools wander away and get killed.
They are destroyed because they do not care.
33But those who listen to me will live in safety.
They will be safe, without fear of being hurt.”
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Proverbs 1
1
1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
2To know wisdom and instruction;
to discern the words of understanding;
3To receive instruction in wise dealing,
In righteousness and judgement and equity;
4To give subtilty to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion:
5That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning;
And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:
6To understand a proverb, and a figure;
The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge:
But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
8My son, hear the instruction of thy father,
And forsake not the law of thy mother:
9For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head,
And chains about thy neck.
10My son, if sinners entice thee,
Consent thou not.
11If they say, Come with us,
Let us lay wait for blood,
Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;
12Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,
And whole, as those that go down into the pit;
13We shall find all precious substance,
We shall fill our houses with spoil;
14Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;
We will all have one purse:
15My son, walk not thou in the way with them;
Refrain thy foot from their path:
16For their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed blood.
17For in vain is the net spread, in the eyes of any bird:
18And these lay wait for their own blood,
They lurk privily for their own lives.
19So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
20Wisdom crieth aloud in the street;
She uttereth her voice in the broad places;
21She crieth in the chief place of concourse;
At the entering in of the gates,
In the city, she uttereth her words:
22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
And scorners delight them in scorning,
And fools hate knowledge?
23Turn you at my reproof:
Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you,
I will make known my words unto you.
24Because I have called, and ye refused;
I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25But ye have set at nought all my counsel,
And would none of my reproof:
26I also will laugh in the day of your calamity;
I will mock when your fear cometh;
27When your fear cometh as a storm,
And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind;
When distress and anguish come upon you.
28Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer;
They shall seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:
29For that they hated knowledge,
And did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30They would none of my counsel;
They despised all my reproof:
31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
And be filled with their own devices.
32For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them,
And the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely,
And shall be quiet without fear of evil.
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