| New Living Translation (NLT) |
New International Version (NIV) |
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19 A wise person is stronger than the ten leading citizens of a town!
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19 Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than ten rulers in a city.
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20 There is not a single person in all the earth who is always good and never sins.
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20 There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.
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21 Don't eavesdrop on others -- you may hear your servant laughing at you.
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21 Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you--
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22 For you know how often you yourself have laughed at others.
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22 for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.
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23 All along I have tried my best to let wisdom guide my thoughts and actions. I said to myself, "I am determined to be wise." But it didn't really work.
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23 All this I tested by wisdom and I said, "I am determined to be wise"-- but this was beyond me.
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24 Wisdom is always distant and very difficult to find.
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24 Whatever wisdom may be, it is far off and most profound-- who can discover it?
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25 I searched everywhere, determined to find wisdom and to understand the reason for things. I was determined to prove to myself that wickedness is stupid and that foolishness is madness.
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25 So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.
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26 I discovered that a seductive woman is more bitter than death. Her passion is a trap, and her soft hands will bind you. Those who please God will escape from her, but sinners will be caught in her snare.
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26 I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.
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27 "This is my conclusion," says the Teacher. "I came to this result after looking into the matter from every possible angle.
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27 "Look," says the Teacher, "this is what I have discovered: "Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things--
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28 Just one out of every thousand men I interviewed can be said to be upright, but not one woman!
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28 while I was still searching but not finding-- I found one [upright] man among a thousand, but not one [upright] woman among them all.
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29 I discovered that God created people to be upright, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path."
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29 This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes."
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| Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. (New Living Translation - The Bible Online) |
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) |
