Proverbs is a collection of wise sayings and teachings attributed primarily to King Solomon. It offers practical guidance on living a righteous and prudent life. The book emphasizes the importance of wisdom, understanding, and the fear of the Lord as the foundation for a fulfilling life. It addresses themes like honesty, diligence, humility, and self-control, providing insights into human behavior and relationships. Through vivid imagery and concise statements, Proverbs encourages moral integrity and the pursuit of knowledge.
1. The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;2. To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;3. To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
1. My son, if you will receive my words, and hide my commandments with you;2. So that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;3. Yes, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;
1. My son, forget not my law; but let your heart keep my commandments:2. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to you.3. Let not mercy and truth forsake you: bind them about your neck; write them on the table of your heart:
1. Hear, you children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.2. For I give you good doctrine, forsake you not my law.3. For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
1. My son, attend to my wisdom, and bow your ear to my understanding:2. That you may regard discretion, and that your lips may keep knowledge. ¶3. For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
1. My son, if you be surety for your friend, if you have stricken your hand with a stranger,2. You are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth.3. Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, when you are come into the hand of your friend; go, humble yourself, and make sure your friend.
1. My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with you.2. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of your eye.3. Bind them on your fingers, write them on the table of your heart.
1. Does not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?2. She stands in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.3. She cries at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
1. Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars:2. She has killed her beasts; she has mingled her wine; she has also furnished her table.3. She has sent forth her maidens: she cries on the highest places of the city,
1. The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.2. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivers from death.3. The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casts away the substance of the wicked.
1. A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.2. When pride comes, then comes shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.3. The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.
1. Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge: but he that hates reproof is brutish.2. A good man obtains favor of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.3. A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
1. A wise son hears his father’s instruction: but a scorner hears not rebuke.2. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth: but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence.3. He that keeps his mouth keeps his life: but he that opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
1. Every wise woman builds her house: but the foolish plucks it down with her hands.2. He that walks in his uprightness fears the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despises him.3. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.
1. A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.2. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools pours out foolishness.3. The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
1. The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.2. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weighs the spirits.3. Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts shall be established.
1. Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife.2. A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causes shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brothers.3. The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD tries the hearts.
1. Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeks and intermeddles with all wisdom.2. A fool has no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.3. When the wicked comes, then comes also contempt, and with ignominy reproach.
1. Better is the poor that walks in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.2. Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hastens with his feet sins.3. The foolishness of man perverts his way: and his heart frets against the LORD.
1. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whoever is deceived thereby is not wise.2. The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own soul.3. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.
1. The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will.2. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD ponders the hearts.3. To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
1. A GOOD name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.2. The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.3. A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.
1. When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you:2. And put a knife to your throat, if you be a man given to appetite.3. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
1. Be not you envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.2. For their heart studies destruction, and their lips talk of mischief.3. Through wisdom is an house built; and by understanding it is established:
1. These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.2. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.3. The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.
1. As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool.2. As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.3. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back.
1. Boast not yourself of to morrow; for you know not what a day may bring forth.2. Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.3. A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.
1. The wicked flee when no man pursues: but the righteous are bold as a lion.2. For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged.3. A poor man that oppresses the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaves no food.
1. He, that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.2. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked bears rule, the people mourn.3. Whoever loves wisdom rejoices his father: but he that keeps company with harlots spends his substance.
1. The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spoke to Ithiel, even to Ithiel and Ucal,2. Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.3. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.
1. The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.2. What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?3. Give not your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings.
