Proverbs 7-9

Proverbs 7

¹My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

²Keep my commandments, and live; and my teaching, as the apple of thine eye.

³Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the tablet of thy heart.

⁴Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, and call intelligence thy kinswoman:

⁵that they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger who flattereth with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house, I looked forth through my lattice,

⁷and I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the sons, a young man void of understanding,

⁸passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

⁹in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the blackness of night and the darkness.

¹⁰And behold, there met him a woman in the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart.

¹¹She is clamorous and unmanageable; her feet abide not in her house:

¹²now without, now in the broadways, -- and she lieth in wait at every corner.

¹³And she caught him and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

¹⁴I have peace-offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows:

¹⁵therefore came I forth to meet thee, to seek earnestly thy face, and I have found thee.

¹⁶I have decked my bed with tapestry coverlets of variegated linen from Egypt;

¹⁷I have perfumed my couch with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us revel in love until the morning, let us delight ourselves with loves.

¹⁹For the husband is not at home, he is gone a long journey;

²⁰he hath taken the money-bag with him, he will come home on the day of the full moon.

²¹With her much enticement she beguiled him; with the smoothness of her lips she constrained him.

²²He went after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, and as stocks serve for the correction of the fool;

²³till an arrow strike through his liver: as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for its life.

²⁴And now, ye sons, hearken unto me, and attend to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Let not thy heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths:

²⁶for she hath cast down many wounded, and all slain by her were strong.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

Proverbs 8

¹Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding give forth her voice?

²On the top of high places by the way, at the cross-paths she taketh her stand.

³Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors, she crieth aloud.

⁴Unto you, men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of man:

⁵O ye simple, understand prudence; and ye foolish, understand sense.

⁶Hear, for I will speak excellent things, and the opening of my lips shall be right things.

⁷For my palate shall meditate truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing tortuous or perverse in them.

⁹They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.

¹⁰Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold:

¹¹for wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things that may be desired are not equal to it.

¹²I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find the knowledge which cometh of reflection.

¹³The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil; pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate.

¹⁴Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am intelligence; I have strength.

¹⁵By me kings reign, and rulers make just decrees;

¹⁶by me princes rule, and nobles, all the judges of the earth.

¹⁷I love those that love me; and they that seek me early shall find me.

¹⁸Riches and honour are with me; durable wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than fine gold, yea, than pure gold; and my revenue than choice silver.

²⁰I walk in the path of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:

²¹that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasuries.

²²Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

²³I was set up from eternity, from the beginning, before the earth was.

²⁴When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth;

²⁶while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the beginning of the dust of the world.

²⁷When he prepared the heavens I was there; when he ordained the circle upon the face of the deep;

²⁸when he established the skies above, when the fountains of the deep became strong;

²⁹when he imposed on the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

³⁰then I was by him his nursling, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;

³¹rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men.

³²And now, sons, hearken unto me, and blessed are they that keep my ways:

³³hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not.

³⁴Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

³⁵For whoso findeth me findeth life, and obtaineth favour of Jehovah;

³⁶but he that sinneth against me doeth violence to his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

Proverbs 9

¹Wisdom hath built her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars;

²she hath slaughtered her cattle, she hath mingled her wine, she hath also prepared her table;

³she hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the summits of the high places of the city,

⁴Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. To him that is void of understanding, she saith,

⁵Come, eat ye of my bread, and drink of the wine that I have mingled.

⁶Forsake follies and live, and go in the way of intelligence.

⁷He that instructeth a scorner getteth to himself shame; and he that reproveth a wicked man getteth to himself a blot.

⁸Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee; reprove a wise man, and he will love thee.

⁹Impart to a wise man, and he will become yet wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase learning.

¹⁰The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the Holy is intelligence.

¹¹For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and years of life shall be added to thee.

¹²If thou art wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; and if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.

¹³The foolish woman is clamorous; she is stupid, and knoweth nothing.

¹⁴And she sitteth at the entry of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,

¹⁵to call passers-by who go right on their ways:

¹⁶Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. And to him that is void of understanding she saith,

¹⁷Stolen waters are sweet, and the bread of secrecy is pleasant.

¹⁸But he knoweth not that the dead are there; that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.