Prov 1
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The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
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To know wisdom and instruction; To discern the words of understanding;
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To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness and justice and equity;
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To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion:
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That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; And that the man of understanding
may attain to sound counsels:
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To understand a proverb, and a figure, The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
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The fear of YHWH is the beginning of knowledge; [But] the foolish despise wisdom and
instruction.
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My son, hear the instruction of your father, And forsake not the law of your mother:
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For they shall be a chaplet of grace to your head, And chains about your neck.
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My son, if sinners entice you, Consent you not.
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If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the
innocent without cause;
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Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit;
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We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil;
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You shall cast your lot among us; We will all have one purse:
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My son, walk not you in the way with them; Refrain your foot from their path:
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For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood.
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For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird:
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And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own lives.
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So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It takes away the life of the
owners thereof.
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Wisdom cries aloud in the street; She utters her voice in the broad places;
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She cries in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city,
she utters her words:
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How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in
scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?
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Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known
my words to you.
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Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no
man has regarded;
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But you have set at nothing all my counsel, And would none of my reproof:
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I also will laugh in [the day of] your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;
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When your fear comes as a storm, And your calamity comes on as a whirlwind; When distress
and anguish come upon you.
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Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently,
but they shall not find me:
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For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of YHWH:
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They would none of my counsel; They despised all my reproof.
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Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own
devices.
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For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, And the careless ease of fools
shall destroy them.
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But whoso hearkens to me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of
evil.