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Proverbs 1:1-9:18

PROVERBS. The value of Proverbs. (Pr.1.1-6)

11 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2 for learning what wisdom and discipline are, for understanding words of deep meaning,
3 for acquiring a disciplined insight, uprightness, justice and fair dealing;
4 for teaching sound judgement to the simple, and knowledge and reflection to the young;
5 Let the wise listen and learn yet more, and a person of discernment will acquire the art of guidance.
6 for perceiving the meaning of proverbs and obscure sayings, the sayings of the sages and their riddles.

Advice to young men. (Pr.1.7-19)

7 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; fools spurn wisdom and discipline. 8 Listen, my child, to your father's instruction, do not reject your mother's teaching:
9 they will be a crown of grace for your head, a circlet for your neck.
10 My child, if sinners try to seduce you, do not go with them.
11 If they say, 'Come with us: let us lie in ambush to shed blood; if we plan an ambush for the innocent without provocation,
12 we can swallow them alive, like Sheol, and whole, like those who sink into oblivion.
13 We shall find treasures of every sort, we shall fill our houses with plunder;
14 throw in your lot with us: one purse between us all.'
15 My child, do not follow them in their way, keep your steps out of their path
16 for their feet hasten to evil, they are quick to shed blood;
17 for the net is spread in vain if any winged creature can see it.
18 It is for their own blood such people lie in wait, their ambush is against their own selves!
19 Such are the paths of all who seek dishonest gain: which robs of their lives all who take it for their own.

Wisdom calls. (Pr.1.20-33)

20 Wisdom calls aloud in the streets, she raises her voice in the public squares;
21 she calls out at the street corners, she delivers her message at the city gates.
22 'You simple people, how much longer will you cling to your simple ways?
How much longer will mockers revel in their mocking and fools go on hating knowledge?
23 Pay attention to my warning. To you I will pour out my heart and tell you what I have to say.
24 Since I have called and you have refused me, since I have beckoned and no one has taken notice,
25 since you have ignored all my advice and rejected all my warnings,
26 I, for my part, shall laugh at your distress, I shall jeer when terror befalls you,
27 when terror befalls you, like a storm, when your distress arrives, like a whirlwind, when ordeal and anguish bear down on you.
28 Then they will call me, but I shall not answer, they will look eagerly for me and will not find me.
29 They have hated knowledge, they have not chosen the fear of Yahweh,
30 they have taken no notice of my advice, they have spurned all my warnings:
31 so they will have to eat the fruits of their own ways of life, and choke themselves with their own scheming.
32 For the errors of the simple lead to their death, the complacency of fools works their own ruin;
33 but whoever listens to me may live secure, will have quiet, fearing no mischance.'

The rewards of Wisdom. (Pr.2.1-22)

21 My child, if you take my words to heart, if you set store by my commandments,
2 tuning your ear to wisdom, tuning your heart to understanding,
3 yes, if your plea is for clear perception, if you cry out for understanding,
4 if you look for it as though for silver, search for it as though for buried treasure,
5 then you will understand what the fear of Yahweh is, and discover the knowledge of God.
6 For Yahweh himself is giver of wisdom, from his mouth issue knowledge and understanding.
7 He reserves his advice for the honest, a shield to those whose ways are sound;
8 he stands guard over the paths of equity, he keeps watch over the way of those faithful to him.
9 Then you will understand uprightness, equity and fair dealing, the paths that lead to happiness.
10 When wisdom comes into your heart and knowledge fills your soul with delight,
11 then prudence will be there to watch over you, and understanding will be your guardian
12 to keep you from the way that is evil, from those whose speech is deceitful,
13 from those who leave the paths of honesty to walk the roads of darkness:
14 those who find their joy in doing wrong, and their delight in deceitfulness,
15 whose tracks are twisted, and the paths that they tread crooked.
16 To keep you, too, from the woman who belongs to another, from the stranger, with her wheedling words;
17 she has left the partner of her younger days, she has forgotten the covenant of her God;
18 her house is tilting towards Death, down to the Shades go her paths.
19 Of those who go to her not one returns, they never regain the paths of life.
20 Thus you will tread the way of good people, persisting in the paths of the upright.
21 For the land will be for the honest to live in, the innocent will have it for their home;
22 while the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the faithless rooted out of it.

Advice to young men. (Pr.3.1-35)

31 My child, do not forget my teaching, let your heart keep my principles,
2 since they will increase your length of days, your years of life and your well-being.
3 Let faithful love and constancy never leave you: tie them round your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Thus you will find favour and success in the sight of God and of people.
5 Trust wholeheartedly in Yahweh, put no faith in your own perception;
6 acknowledge him in every course you take, and he will see that your paths are smooth.
7 Do not congratulate yourself on your own wisdom, fear Yahweh and turn your back on evil:
8 health-giving, this, to your body, relief to your bones.
9 Honour Yahweh with what goods you have and with the first-fruits of all your produce;
10 then your barns will be filled with corn, your vats overflowing with new wine.
11 My child, do not scorn correction from Yahweh, do not resent his reproof;
12 for Yahweh reproves those he loves, as a father the child whom he loves.
13 Blessed are those who have discovered wisdom, those who have acquired understanding!
14 Gaining her is more rewarding than silver, her yield is more valuable than gold.
15 She is beyond the price of pearls, nothing you could covet is her equal.
16 In her right hand is length of days; in her left hand, riches and honour.
17 Her ways are filled with delight, her paths all lead to contentment.
18 She is a tree of life for those who hold her fast, those who cling to her live happy lives.
19 In wisdom, Yahweh laid the earth's foundations, in understanding he spread out the heavens.
20 Through his knowledge the depths were cleft open, and the clouds distil the dew.
21 My child, hold to sound advice and prudence, never let them out of sight;
22 they will give life to your soul and beauty to your neck.
23 You will go on your way in safety, your feet will not stumble.
24 When you go to bed, you will not be afraid; once in bed, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Have no fear either of sudden terror or of attack mounted by wicked men,
26 since Yahweh will be your guarantor, he will keep your steps from the snare.
27 Refuse no kindness to those who have a right to it, if it is in your power to perform it.
28 Do not say to your neighbour, 'Go away! Come another time! I will give it you tomorrow,' if you can do it now.
29 Do not plot harm against your neighbour who is living unsuspecting beside you.
30 Do not pick a groundless quarrel with anyone who has done you no harm.
31 Do not envy the man of violence, never model your conduct on his;
32 for the wilful wrong-doer is abhorrent to Yahweh, who confides only in the honest.
33 Yahweh's curse lies on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the upright.
34 He mocks those who mock, but accords his favour to the humble.
35 Glory is the portion of the wise, all that fools inherit is contempt.

The benefits of wisdom. (Pr.4.1-27)

41 Listen, my children, to a father's instruction; pay attention, and learn what understanding is.
2 What I am offering you is sound doctrine: do not forsake my teaching.
3 I too was once a child with a father, in my mother's eyes a tender child, unique.
4 This was what he used to teach me, 'Let your heart treasure what I have to say, keep my principles and you will live;
5 acquire wisdom, acquire understanding, never forget her, never deviate from my words.
6 Do not desert her, she will keep you safe; love her, she will watch over you.
7 The first principle of wisdom is: acquire wisdom; at the cost of all you have, acquire understanding!
8 Hold her close, and she will make you great; embrace her, and she will be your pride;
9 she will provide a graceful garland for your head, bestow a crown of honour on you.'
10 Listen, my child, take my words to heart, and the years of your life will be multiplied.
11 I have educated you in the ways of wisdom, I have guided you along the path of honesty.
12 When you walk, your going will be unhindered, if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Hold fast to discipline, never let her go, keep your eyes on her, she is your life.
14 Do not follow the path of the wicked, do not walk the way that the evil go.
15 Avoid it, do not take it, turn your back on it, pass it by.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they have first done wrong, they miss their sleep if they have not made someone stumble;
17 for the bread of wickedness is what they eat, and the wine of violence is what they drink.
18 The path of the upright is like the light of dawn, its brightness growing to the fullness of day;
19 the way of the wicked is as dark as night, they cannot tell the obstacles they stumble over.
20 My child, pay attention to what I am telling you, listen carefully to my words;
21 do not let them out of your sight, keep them deep in your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them and health to all humanity.
23 More than all else, keep watch over your heart, since here are the wellsprings of life.
24 Turn your back on the mouth that misleads, keep your distance from lips that deceive.
25 Let your eyes be fixed ahead, your gaze be straight before you.
26 Let the path you tread be level and all your ways be firm.
27 Turn neither to right nor to left, keep your foot clear of evil.

Warning against adultery. (Pr.5.1-23)

51 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully to what I know;
2 so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Take no notice of a loose-living woman,
3 for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous 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, Sheol the goal of her steps;
6 far from following the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.
7 And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say:
8 set your course as far from her as possible, go nowhere near the door of her house,
9 or she will hand over your honour to others, the years of your life to a man without pity,
10 and strangers will batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger,
11 and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you will groan
12 and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned all correction;
13 I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me.
14 Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.'
15 Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring.
16 Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares:
17 let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.
18 May your fountain-head be blessed!

Find joy with the wife you married in your youth, 19 fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn:
hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that ever holds you captive.
20 Why be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs to another?
21 For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey all human paths.
22 The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin.
23 For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.

More warnings. (Pr.6.1-19)

61 My child, if you have gone surety for your neighbour, if you have guaranteed the bond of a stranger,
2 if you have committed yourself with your lips, if through words of yours you have been entrapped,
3 do this, my child, to extricate yourself—since you have put yourself in the power of your neighbour:
go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbour,
4 give your eyes no sleep, your eyelids no rest,
5 break free like a gazelle from the trap, like a bird from the fowler's clutches.
6 Idler, go to the ant; ponder her ways and grow wise:
7 no one gives her orders, no overseer, no master,
8 yet all through the summer she gets her food ready, and gathers her supplies at harvest time.
9 How long do you intend to lie there, idler? When are you going to rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little drowsiness, a little folding of the arms to lie back,
11 and poverty comes like a vagrant and, like a beggar, dearth.
12 A scoundrel, a vicious man, he goes with a leer on his lips,
13 winking his eye, shuffling his foot, beckoning with his finger.
14 Trickery in his heart, always scheming evil, he sows dissension.
15 Disaster will overtake him sharply for this, suddenly, irretrievably, he will be broken.
16 There are six things that Yahweh hates, seven that he abhors:
17 a haughty look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that weaves wicked plots, feet that hurry to do evil,
19 a false witness who lies with every breath, and one who sows dissension among brothers.

Warning against adultery. (Pr.6.20-7.5)

20 Keep your father's precept, my child, do not spurn your mother's teaching.
21 Bind them ever to your heart, tie them round your neck.
22 While you are active, they will guide you,
when you fall asleep, they will watch over you,
when you wake up, they will converse with you.
23 For the precept is a lamp, the teaching is a light; correction and discipline are the way to life,
24 preserving you from the woman of bad character, from the wheedling talk of a woman who belongs to another.
25 Do not covet her beauty in your heart or let her captivate you with the play of her eyes;
26 a prostitute can be bought for a hunk of bread, but a married woman aims to snare a precious life.
27 Can a man carry fire inside his shirt without setting his clothes alight?
28 Can you walk on red-hot coals without burning your feet?
29 Just so, the man who makes love to his neighbour's wife: no one who touches her will get off unpunished.
30 People attach but little blame to a thief who steals only to satisfy his hunger;
31 yet even he, if caught, will have to repay sevenfold and hand over all his family resources.
32 But the adulterer has no sense; he works his own destruction.
33 All he will get is blows and contempt, and dishonour never to be blotted out.
34 For jealousy inflames the husband who will show no mercy when the day comes for revenge;
35 he will not consider any compensation; lavish what gifts you may, he will not be placated.
71 My child, keep my words, and treasure my precepts,
2 keep my precepts and you will live, keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind these to your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to Wisdom, 'You are my sister!' Call Understanding your relation,
5 to save yourself from the woman that belongs to another, from the stranger, with her seductive words.

The immoral woman. (Pr.7.6-27)

6 While I was at the window of my house, I was looking out through the lattice
7 and I saw, among the callow youths, I noticed among the lads, one boy who had no sense.
8 Going along the lane, near the corner where she lives, he reaches the path to her house,
9 at twilight when day is declining, at dead of night and in the dark.
10 And look, a woman is coming to meet him, dressed like a prostitute, false of heart.
11 She is loud and brazen; her feet cannot rest at home.
12 Once in the street, once in the square, she lurks at every corner.
13 She catches hold of him, she kisses him, the bold-faced creature says to him,
14 'I had to offer a communion sacrifice, I have discharged my vows today;
15 that is why I came out to meet you, to look for you, and now I have found you.
16 I have spread coverlets over my divan, embroidered stuff, Egyptian material,
17 I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, with aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come on, we'll make love as much as we like, till morning. Let us enjoy the delights of love!
19 For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a very long journey,
20 taking his moneybags with him; he will not be back till the moon is full.'
21 With her persistent coaxing she overcomes him, lures him on with her wheedling patter.
22 Forthwith he follows her, like an ox on its way to the slaughterhouse, like a madman on his way to the stocks,
23 until an arrow pierces him to the liver, like the bird that dashes into the net without realising that its life is at stake.
24 And now, son, listen to me, pay attention to the words I have to say:
25 do not let your heart stray into her ways, or wander into her paths;
26 she has done so many to death, and the strongest have all been her victims.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol, the descent to the courts of death.

In praise of Wisdom. (Pr.8.1-36)

81 Is not Wisdom calling? Is not Understanding raising her voice?
2 On the heights overlooking the road, at the crossways, she takes her stand;
3 by the gates, at the entrance to the city, on the access-roads, she cries out,
4 'I am calling to you, all people, my words are addressed to all humanity.
5 Simpletons, learn how to behave, fools, come to your senses.
6 Listen, I have something important to tell you, when I speak, my words are right.
7 My mouth proclaims the truth, for evil is abhorrent to my lips.
8 All the words from my mouth are upright, nothing false there, nothing crooked,
9 everything plain, if you can understand, straight, if you have acquired knowledge.
10 Accept my discipline rather than silver, and knowledge of me in preference to finest gold.
11 For Wisdom is more precious than jewels, and nothing else is so worthy of desire.
12 'I, Wisdom, share house with Discretion, I am mistress of the art of thought.
13 (Fear of Yahweh means hatred of evil.) I hate pride and arrogance, wicked behaviour and a lying mouth.
14 To me belong good advice and prudence, I am perception: power is mine!
15 By me monarchs rule and princes decree what is right;
16 by me rulers govern, so do nobles, the lawful authorities.
17 I love those who love me; whoever searches eagerly for me finds me.
18 With me are riches and honour, lasting wealth and saving justice.
19 The fruit I give is better than gold, even the finest, the return I make is better than pure silver.
20 I walk in the way of uprightness in the path of justice,
21 to endow my friends with my wealth and to fill their treasuries.
22 'Yahweh created me, first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works.
23 From everlasting, I was firmly set, from the beginning, before the earth came into being.
24 The deep was not, when I was born, nor were the springs with their abounding waters.
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I came to birth;
26 before he had made the earth, the countryside, and the first elements of the world.
27 When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there, when he drew a circle on the surface of the deep,
28 when he thickened the clouds above, when the sources of the deep began to swell,
29 when he assigned the sea its boundaries—and the waters will not encroach on the shore—when he traced the foundations of the earth,
30 I was beside the master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence,
31 at play everywhere on his earth, delighting to be with the children of men.
32 'And now, my children, listen to me. Happy are those who keep my ways.
33 Listen to instruction and become wise, do not reject it.
34 Blessed, whoever listens to me, who day after day keeps watch at my gates to guard my portals.
35 For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains the favour of Yahweh;
36 but whoever misses me harms himself, all who hate me are in love with death.'

Wisdom & simpleness. (Pr.9.1-18)

91 Wisdom has built herself a house, she has hewn her seven pillars,
2 she has slaughtered her beasts, drawn her wine, she has laid her table.
3 She has despatched her maidservants and proclaimed from the heights above the city,
4 'Who is simple? Let him come this way.' To the fool she says,
5 'Come and eat my bread, drink the wine which I have drawn!
6 Leave foolishness behind and you will live, go forwards in the ways of perception.'
7 Reprove a mocker and you attract contempt, rebuke the wicked and you attract dishonour.
8 Do not rebuke the mocker, he will hate you. Rebuke the wise and he will love you for it.
9 Be open with the wise, he grows wiser still, teach the upright, he will gain yet more.
10 The first principle of wisdom is the fear of Yahweh, What God's holy ones know—this is understanding.
11 For by me your days will be multiplied, and your years of life increased.
12 Are you wise? You are wise to your own good. A mocker? The burden is yours alone.
13 A silly woman acts on impulse, is foolish and knows nothing.
14 She sits at the door of her house, on a throne high up in the city,
15 calling to the passers-by, who are walking straight past on their way,
16 'Who is simple? Turn aside, come over here.' To the fool she says,
17 'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread tastes better when eaten in secret.'
18 But the fool does not know that this is where the Shades are and that her guests are already in the vales of Sheol.

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