The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2000.
The Value of Proverbs |
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The Proverbs of Solomon 1 Kgs. 4.32 the son of David, king of Israel:
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To know wisdom and instruction;
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to perceive the words of understanding; |
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to receive the instruction of wisdom,
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justice, and judgment, and equity; |
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to give subtilty to the simple,
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to the young man knowledge and discretion. |
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A wise man will hear, and will increase learning;
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and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: |
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to understand a proverb, and the interpretation;
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the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. |
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The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: Job. 28.28 · Ps. 111.10 · Prov. 9.10
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but fools despise wisdom and instruction. |
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Wisdom’s Warning |
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My son, hear the instruction of thy father,
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and forsake not the law of thy mother: |
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9 |
for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head,
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and chains about thy neck. |
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10 |
My son, if sinners entice thee,
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11 |
If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood,
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let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: |
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12 |
let us swallow them up alive as the grave;
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and whole, as those that go down into the pit: |
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13 |
we shall find all precious substance,
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we shall fill our houses with spoil: |
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14 |
cast in thy lot among us;
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let us all have one purse: |
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15 |
my son, walk not thou in the way with them;
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refrain thy foot from their path: |
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for their feet run to evil,
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and make haste to shed blood. |
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17 |
Surely in vain the net is spread
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in the sight of any bird. |
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And they lay wait for their own blood;
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they lurk privily for their own lives. |
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So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
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which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. |
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20 |
Wisdom crieth without;
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she uttereth her voice in the streets: |
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21 |
she crieth in the chief place of concourse,
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in the openings of the gates: |
in the city she uttereth her words, Prov. 8.1-3 saying, |
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How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
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and the scorners delight in their scorning, |
and fools hate knowledge? |
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Turn you at my reproof:
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behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, |
I will make known my words unto you. |
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Because I have called, and ye refused;
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I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; |
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but ye have set at nought all my counsel,
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and would none of my reproof: |
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I also will laugh at your calamity;
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I will mock when your fear cometh; |
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when your fear cometh as desolation,
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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,
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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,
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and did not choose the fear of the LORD: |
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30 |
they would none of my counsel:
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they despised all my reproof. |
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31 |
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
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and be filled with their own devices. |
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32 |
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them,
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and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. |
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33 |
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely,
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and shall be quiet from fear of evil. |
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