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Proverbs 1; Proverbs 2; Proverbs 3; Proverbs 4; Proverbs 5; Proverbs 6; Proverbs 7; Proverbs 8; Proverbs 9

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Proverbs 1

1 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
2 That men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight,
3 receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 that prudence may be given to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth--
5 the wise man also may hear and increase in learning, and the man of understanding acquire skill,
6 to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8 Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and reject not your mother's teaching;
9 for they are a fair garland for your head, and pendants for your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
11 If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us wantonly ambush the innocent;
12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive and whole, like those who go down to the Pit;
13 we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with spoil;
14 throw in your lot among us, we will all have one purse" --
15 my son, do not walk in the way with them, hold back your foot from their paths;
16 for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.
17 For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird;
18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood, they set an ambush for their own lives.
19 Such are the ways of all who get gain by violence; it takes away the life of its possessors.
20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street; in the markets she raises her voice;
21 on the top of the walls she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 "How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
23 Give heed to my reproof; behold, I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
25 and you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you,
27 when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
30 would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof,
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices.
32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacence of fools destroys them;
33 but he who listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of evil."
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures;
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 discretion will watch over you; understanding will guard you;
12 delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil;
15 men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.
16 You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her smooth words,
17 who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the shades;
19 none who go to her come back nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 So you will walk in the way of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and men of integrity will remain in it;
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 3

1 My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;
2 for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare will they give you.
3 Let not loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
9 Honor the LORD with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce;
10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
11 My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof,
12 for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding,
14 for the gain from it is better than gain from silver and its profit better than gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy.
19 The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens;
20 by his knowledge the deeps broke forth, and the clouds drop down the dew.
21 My son, keep sound wisdom and discretion; let them not escape from your sight,
22 and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck.
23 Then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble.
24 If you sit down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden panic, or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes;
26 for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.
27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
28 Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it" --when you have it with you.
29 Do not plan evil against your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you.
30 Do not contend with a man for no reason, when he has done you no harm.
31 Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways;
32 for the perverse man is an abomination to the LORD, but the upright are in his confidence.
33 The LORD's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the abode of the righteous.
34 Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he shows favor.
35 The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 4

1 Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
2 for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching.
3 When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,
4 he taught me, and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live;
5 do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Get wisdom; get insight.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.
8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.
9 She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown."
10 Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.
11 I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
12 When you walk, your step will not be hampered; and if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Keep hold of instruction, do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil men.
15 Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made some one stumble.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.
20 My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.
22 For they are life to him who finds them, and healing to all his flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life.
24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.
25 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
26 Take heed to the path of your feet, then all your ways will be sure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 5

1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding;
2 that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother 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; her steps follow the path to Sheol;
6 she does not take heed to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house;
9 lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless;
10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of an alien;
11 and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 I was at the point of utter ruin in the assembled congregation."
15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
19 a lovely hind, a graceful doe. Let her affection fill you at all times with delight, be infatuated always with her love.
20 Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman and embrace the bosom of an adventuress?
21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he watches all his paths.
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is caught in the toils of his sin.
23 He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is lost.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 6

1 My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger;
2 if you are snared in the utterance of your lips, caught in the words of your mouth;
3 then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor's power: go, hasten, and importune your neighbor.
4 Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;
5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief, officer or ruler,
8 she prepares her food in summer, and gathers her sustenance in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond, and want like an armed man.
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,
13 winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet, points with his finger,
14 with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord;
15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.
16 There are six things which the LORD hates, seven which are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers.
20 My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.
21 Bind them upon your heart always; tie them about your neck.
22 When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adventuress.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
26 for a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread, but an adulteress stalks a man's very life.
27 Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can one walk upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched?
29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.
30 Do not men despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry?
31 And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.
32 He who commits adultery has no sense; he who does it destroys himself.
33 Wounds and dishonor will he get, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
35 He will accept no compensation, nor be appeased though you multiply gifts.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 7

1 My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;
2 keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;
3 bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend;
5 to preserve you from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her smooth words.
6 For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice,
7 and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man without sense,
8 passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house
9 in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
10 And lo, a woman meets him, dressed as a harlot, wily of heart.
11 She is loud and wayward, her feet do not stay at home;
12 now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.
13 She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:
14 "I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;
15 so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
16 I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen;
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love.
19 For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey;
20 he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home."
21 With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
22 All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
23 till an arrow pierces its entrails; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.
24 And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
25 Let not your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths;
26 for many a victim has she laid low; yea, all her slain are a mighty host.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 8

1 Does not wisdom call, does not understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights beside the way, in the paths she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
4 "To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the sons of men.
5 O simple ones, learn prudence; O foolish men, pay attention.
6 Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right;
7 for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
9 They are all straight to him who understands and right to those who find knowledge.
10 Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold;
11 for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
12 I, wisdom, dwell in prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.
13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
14 I have counsel and sound wisdom, I have insight, I have strength.
15 By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just;
16 by me princes rule, and nobles govern the earth.
17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
18 Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice,
21 endowing with wealth those who love me, and filling their treasuries.
22 The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.
23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth;
26 before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men.
32 And now, my sons, listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.
34 Happy is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.
35 For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD;
36 but he who misses me injures himself; all who hate me love death."
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 9

1 Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven pillars.
2 She has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table.
3 She has sent out her maids to call from the highest places in the town,
4 "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" To him who is without sense she says,
5 "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave simpleness, and live, and walk in the way of insight."
7 He who corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
8 Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning.
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
11 For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.
12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.
13 A foolish woman is noisy; she is wanton and knows no shame.
14 She sits at the door of her house, she takes a seat on the high places of the town,
15 calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way,
16 "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" And to him who is without sense she says,
17 "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant."
18 But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.