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The Proverbs
The Proverbs, Chapter 1
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1 |
The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
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2 |
Toknow wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
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3 |
To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and
equity;
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4 |
To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge
and discretion.
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5 |
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of
understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
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6 |
To understand a
proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark
sayings.
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7 |
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools
despise wisdom and instruction.
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8 |
My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the
law of thy mother:
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9 |
For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy
head, and chains about thy neck.
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10 |
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
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11 |
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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12 |
Let us swallow them up
alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
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13 |
We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses
with spoil:
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14 |
Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
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15 |
My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from
their path:
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16 |
For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed
blood.
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17 |
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
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18 |
And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for
their own lives.
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19 |
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh
away the life of the owners thereof.
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20 |
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
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21 |
She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of
the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
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22 |
How long,
ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in
their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
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23 |
Turn you at my
reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known
my words unto you.
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24 |
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my
hand, and no man regarded;
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25 |
But ye have set at nought all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof:
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26 |
I also will laugh at your
calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
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27 |
When your fear
cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when
distress and anguish cometh upon you.
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28 |
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall
seek me early, but they shall not find me:
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29 |
For that they hated
knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
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30 |
They would
none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
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31 |
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be
filled with their own devices.
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32 |
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the
prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
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33 |
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be
quiet from fear of evil.
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