Proverbs 1-9

Evangelical Heritage Version

² To learn wisdom and discipline,
to understand sayings^[a] that give insight,^[b]
3 to acquire discipline to act sensibly,
to acquire righteousness, justice, and fairness,
⁴ to give good judgment^[c] to the inexperienced,
to give a young man knowledge and foresight.

⁸ Listen, my son, to your father’s discipline,
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching,
⁹ because they are a garland of grace for your head.
They are jewelry for your neck.
¹⁰ My son, if sinners lure you,
do not go along with them.
¹¹ If they say,
“Come with us.
Let’s lie in wait to shed blood.
Let’s hide and ambush an innocent person for no reason.
¹² We will swallow them alive like the grave.
We will swallow them whole
    like those who go down to the pit.
¹³ We will find all kinds of wealth and treasure.
    We will fill our houses with loot.
¹⁴ Cast your lot with us.
    We will all share one bag of money.”
¹⁵ My son, do not walk along the road with them.
Do not set foot on their path,
¹⁶     because their feet run to do evil,
    and they hurry to shed blood.
¹⁷ How useless to spread a net in the sight of any bird!
¹⁸ Yet they set up an ambush for their own blood.
They hide in ambush to take their own lives.
¹⁹ This is where the path leads for everyone
    who is greedy for stolen property:
It takes away the life of those who possess it.

²⁰ Wisdom calls out loudly in the street.
In the public squares she raises her voice.
²¹ At the noisy street corners she calls out.
At the entrances to the city gates she speaks her words:
²² “How long will you gullible^[f] people love being gullible?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing?
How long will fools hate knowledge?
²³ If you respond to my warning,
I will pour out my spirit for you.
I will make my words known to you.
²⁴ Because I called, but you refused to listen,
because I stretched out my hand, but no one paid attention,
²⁵ because you ignored all my advice,
and you did not accept my warning,
²⁶ therefore I will laugh at your calamity.
I will jeer when terror strikes you,
²⁷ when terror strikes you like a violent storm,
when calamity strikes you like a windstorm,
when trouble and distress come upon you.
²⁸ Then they will call to me, but I will not answer.
They will look for me, but they will not find me,
²⁹ because they hated knowledge,
and they did not choose the fear of the Lord.
³⁰ They would not accept my advice,
and they despised all my warnings.
³¹ So they will eat the fruit of their own way,
and they will be stuffed with their own schemes.
³² Therefore the wandering ways^[g] of the gullible kill them,
and the complacency of fools destroys them.
³³ But whoever listens to me will live in safety.
He will be secure, without fear of evil.”

¹⁶ Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman,^[j]
from the unfaithful woman^[k] with her seductive words,
¹⁷ who abandons the husband of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God.
¹⁸ So she sinks down to death, which becomes her house.^[l]
Her way of life leads down to the spirits of the dead.
¹⁹ All who enter her house never return.
They never reach the paths of life.

²⁰ This is how to walk in the way of good people,
how to stay on the paths of the righteous.
²¹ Yes, the upright will live in the land,
and people with integrity will remain in it,
²² but wicked people will be cut off from the land,
and treacherous people will be torn out of it.

²⁷ Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due
    when it is within your power to give it.
²⁸ Do not say to your neighbor,
“Go away! Come back some other time.
I will give something to you tomorrow,”
when in fact it is already with you right now.
²⁹ Do not plan harm against your neighbor
    when he is living with you peacefully.
³⁰ Do not quarrel with a person for no good reason
    when he has done nothing to harm you.
³¹ Do not envy a violent person.
Do not choose any of his ways,
³² because a crooked person is an abomination^[s] to the Lord,
but God’s friendly guidance leads^[t] the upright.
³³ The Lord’s curse rests on the house of the wicked,
but he blesses the home of the righteous.
³⁴ Although he scorns the scornful,
he gives grace to the humble.
³⁵ Wise people inherit honor,
but proud fools receive disgrace.

¹⁰ Listen, my son, and accept my words,
so that the years of your life will be many.
¹¹ I have instructed you in the way of wisdom.
I have led you along straight paths.^[u]
12 When you walk, your stride will not be hindered.
Even if you run, you will not stumble.
¹³ Hold on to discipline. Do not let go.
Guard it, because it is your life.
¹⁴ Do not travel on the path of the wicked.
Do not walk in the way of evil people.
¹⁵ Avoid it! Do not travel on it!
Turn away from it. Pass it by.
¹⁶ For they cannot sleep
    unless they have been doing wrong,
and they are robbed of sleep
    unless they are making someone stumble,
¹⁷ because wickedness is the food they eat,
and violence is the wine they drink.
¹⁸ But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
shining brighter and brighter until it is day.
¹⁹ The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness.
They never know where they will stumble.

²⁰ My son, pay attention to my words.
Open your ears to what I say.
²¹ Do not let them escape from your sight.
Keep them deep in your heart,
²² because they are life for those who find them
and healing for the entire body.^[v]
23 Above all else, guard your heart carefully,
because your life flows from it.
²⁴ Turn your mouth away from perverted speech,
and keep devious lips far away from you.
²⁵ Let your eyes look straight ahead.
Let your gaze^[w] be directly in front of you.
²⁶ Make a level pathway for your feet,
and all your ways will be secure.
²⁷ Do not swerve to the right or the left.
Turn your feet away from evil.

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern.
Drink running water from your own well.
¹⁶ Why should the water from your springs flow out into the street,
your streams of water into the public squares?
¹⁷ They should be yours, yours alone.
They are not for strangers to share with you.
¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed.
Obtain your joy from the wife you married in your youth,
¹⁹     who is a loving doe and a graceful deer.
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times.
Always be intoxicated with her love.
²⁰ Why should you be led astray, my son, by an immoral woman?
Why embrace a woman who is not your wife?
²¹ For the ways of a man are in front of the eyes of the Lord,
and he weighs all of his paths.
²² The evil deeds of the wicked man will capture him,
and he will be bound by the ropes of his sin.
²³ He will die for lack of discipline,
and he will go astray because of his great stupidity.

⁶ Go to the ant, you slacker!^[ac]
Observe its ways and become wise.
⁷ Although it has no overseer, officer, or ruler,
⁸ it stores its food in summer.
It gathers its provisions at harvest time.
⁹ How long will you lie there, you slacker?
When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of your hands to rest,
¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a prowler,
and scarcity will come on you like a warrior.

¹² A worthless, wicked scoundrel,
who goes around with a corrupt mouth,
¹³ who winks with his eye, signals with his foot,
and gestures with his fingers,
¹⁴ who plots evil with a deceitful heart—
he always spreads conflict.
¹⁵ Therefore his disaster will come upon him suddenly.
All at once he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.

¹⁶ These are six things the Lord hates,
seven things that really disgust him:
¹⁷ arrogant eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that run quickly to do evil,
¹⁹ a false witness who breathes lies,
and a person who spreads conflict between brothers.

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commands,
and do not forsake your mother’s teachings.
²¹ Fasten them permanently to your heart,
and tie them around your neck.
²² When you walk around, they will lead you.
When you lie down, they will stand guard over you.
When you wake up, they will converse with you,
²³ because a command is a lamp, teaching is a light,
and the warnings given by discipline are a road to life.
²⁴ They guard you from an evil woman,
from the smooth tongue of a woman who is not your wife.
²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart.
Do not let her captivate you with her eyes.
²⁶ A prostitute costs you a loaf of bread,
but a married woman stalks your precious life.
²⁷ Can a man place fire on his lap
    without burning his clothes?
²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals
    without scorching his feet?
²⁹ So it is with the man who goes to his neighbor’s wife.
No one who touches her will be forgiven.
³⁰ No one despises a thief when he steals
    to satisfy his hunger when he is starving,
³¹ but when he is caught, he will have to repay seven times as much.
He will have to give up all the wealth of his house.
³² Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks sense.
He who does it destroys himself.
³³ He will find disease and dishonor,
and his disgrace will never be wiped out,
³⁴ because jealousy ignites a husband’s anger,
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
³⁵ He will not accept any amount as a payment.
He will not relent, even if you increase your offer.

⁶ At a window of my house, I looked out through the lattice.
⁷ I was watching the gullible^[ae] people.
Among the young men I noticed a youth without sense.
⁸ He was crossing the street near her corner,
strolling along the road to her house,
⁹ in the twilight, in the evening of the day,
when the darkness of the night was coming.^[af]
10 Suddenly a woman meets him.
She is dressed like a prostitute with a scheming heart!
¹¹ She is loud and rebellious.
Her feet will not stay home.
¹² One moment she is in the street.
The next moment she is in the public square.
She is on the prowl near every corner.
¹³ She grabs him and kisses him.
With a brazen face she says,
¹⁴ “I have food from fellowship offerings.
Today I fulfilled my vows.
¹⁵ That is why I came out to meet you.
I came eagerly to seek you,
and now I have found you!
¹⁶ I have covered my couch with a bedspread,
with colored cloth made of Egyptian yarn.
¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed
    with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let’s drink our fill of love^[ag] until morning.
Let’s enjoy making love.
¹⁹ Look, my husband isn’t home.
He has gone on a long trip.
²⁰ He took a bag of silver with him.
He will not come home till the next full moon.”
²¹ She deceives him with enticing words.
With smooth lips she seduces him.
²² He follows right after her,
like a steer going to slaughter,
like a deer prancing into a noose,^[ah]
23     until an arrow pierces its liver,
like a bird darting into a trap.
He does not realize this will cost him his life.
²⁴ Now, you sons, listen to me.
Pay attention to the words from my mouth.
²⁵ Do not let your heart turn in her direction.
Do not wander on her pathways,
²⁶ because she has brought down many victims.
Those she has killed are countless.
²⁷ Her house is on the road to the grave.^[ai]
It goes down to the chambers of death.

¹² I, Wisdom, dwell with good judgment.^[am]
I discover knowledge and foresight.
¹³ The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
I hate haughtiness, arrogance, an evil way, and a perverse mouth.
¹⁴ Good advice and sound judgment are mine.
I, Understanding, have strength.
¹⁵ By me kings reign,
and rulers administer justice.
¹⁶ By me officials govern,
as well as nobles and all just judges.
¹⁷ I certainly love those who love me,
and those who eagerly look for me find me.
¹⁸ Riches and honor are with me,
as well as enduring wealth and righteousness.
¹⁹ My fruit is better than gold, better than pure gold,
and what I produce is better than fine silver.
²⁰ I walk on the path of righteousness,
down the middle of the pathways of justice,
²¹ so I can provide a rich inheritance to those who love me,
and I can fill their treasuries.

²² The Lord possessed^[an] me at the beginning of his way,
before his works of long ago.
²³ From eternity I was appointed,
from the beginning, from before the origin of the earth.
²⁴ When there were no deep waters, I was brought forth,^[ao]
when there were no springs filled with water.
²⁵ Before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
²⁶ when he had not yet made land or fields
or the first dust of the world.
²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there.
When he drew the horizon around the surface of the deep,
²⁸ when he placed the clouds in the sky above,
when the fountains of the deep gushed out,
²⁹ when he established his decree for the sea,
so that the waters could not go beyond the limit set by his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
³⁰ I was beside him as a master craftsman.
I was his joy day after day.
I rejoiced in his presence at all times.
³¹ I rejoiced in his inhabited world.
I was delighted with the children of Adam.^[ap]

³² So now, you children, listen to me,
because those who keep my ways are blessed.
³³ Listen to discipline and become wise.
Do not neglect it.
³⁴ How blessed is the person who listens to me,
so that he can watch at my doors day after day,
so that he can stand guard beside my front door,
³⁵ because whoever finds me finds life,
and he obtains favor from the Lord,
³⁶ but whoever sins against me harms himself.
All who hate me love death.

⁷ Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults,
and whoever warns a wicked person invites abuse.
⁸ Do not warn a mocker, or he will hate you.
Warn a wise person, and he will love you.
⁹ Give advice to a wise person, and he will become even wiser.
Teach a righteous person, and he will add to his learning.

¹³ The woman Folly is boisterous.
She is deluded. She knows nothing.
¹⁴ She sits at the doorway of her house,
on a throne on the heights of the city,
¹⁵ in order to call to those who pass by on the street,
those who are simply going along on their way,
¹⁶ “Whoever is gullible, let him turn in here.”
To someone who lacks sense she says,
¹⁷ “Stolen waters are sweet,
and food eaten in secret is delicious.”
¹⁸ But he does not know that the souls of the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of hell.^[as]