📖 Proverbs 1
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¶ Introduction to the Book The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
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To learn wisdom and moral instruction, to discern wise counsel.
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To receive moral instruction in skillful living, with righteousness, justice, and equity.
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To impart shrewdness to the morally naive, a discerning plan to the young person.
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(Let the wise also hear and gain instruction, and let the discerning acquire guidance!)
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To discern the meaning of a proverb and a parable, the sayings of the wise and their riddles.
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Introduction to the Theme of the Book Fearing the LORD is the beginning of discernment, but fools have despised wisdom and moral instruction.
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Listen, my child, to the instruction from your father, and do not forsake the teaching from your mother.
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For they will be like an elegant garland on your head, and like pendants around your neck.
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Admonition to Avoid Easy but Unjust Riches My child, if sinners try to entice you, do not consent!
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If they say,“Come with us! We will lie in wait to shed blood; we will ambush an innocent person capriciously.
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We will swallow them alive like Sheol, those full of vigor like those going down to the Pit.
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We will seize all kinds of precious wealth; we will fill our houses with plunder.
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Join with us! We will all share equally in what we steal.”
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My child, do not go down their way, withhold yourself from their path;
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for they are eager to inflict harm, and they hasten to shed blood.
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Surely it is futile to spread a net in plain sight of any bird,
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but these men lie in wait for their own blood, they ambush their own lives!
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Such are the ways of all who gain profit unjustly; it takes away the life of those who obtain it!
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Warning Against Disregarding Wisdom Wisdom calls out in the street, she shouts loudly in the plazas;
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at the head of the noisy streets she calls, in the entrances of the gates in the city she utters her words:
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“How long will you simpletons love naiveté? How long have mockers delighted in mockery? And how long will fools hate knowledge?
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You should respond to my rebuke. Then I would pour out my thoughts to you; I would make my words known to you.
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However, because I called but you refused to listen, because I stretched out my hand but no one was paying attention,
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and you neglected all my advice, and did not comply with my rebuke,
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so I myself will laugh when disaster strikes you, I will mock when what you dread comes,
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when what you dread comes like a whirlwind, and disaster strikes you like a devastating storm, when distressing trouble comes on you.
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Then they will call to me, but I will not answer; they will diligently seek me, but they will not find me.
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Because they hated moral knowledge, and did not choose to fear the LORD,
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they did not comply with my advice, they spurned all my rebuke.
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Therefore they will eat from the fruit of their way, and they will be stuffed full of their own counsel.
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For the waywardness of the simpletons will kill them, and the careless ease of fools will destroy them.
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But the one who listens to me will live in security, and will be at ease from the dread of harm.