Authorship. Purpose
(Proverbs 9:1-12)
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The parables of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.
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To know wisdom, and instruction:
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To understand the words of prudence: and to receive the instruction of doctrine, justice, and judgment, and equity:
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To give subtilty to little ones, to the young man knowledge and understanding.
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A wise man shall hear and shall be wiser: and he that understandeth, shall possess governments.
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He shall understand a parable, and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their mysterious sayings.
Main theme. Warnings against violence
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
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My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
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That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck.
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My son, if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them.
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If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent without cause:
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Let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole as one that goeth down into the pit.
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We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoils.
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Cast in thy lot with us, let us all have one purse.
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My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths.
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For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
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But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of them that have wings.
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And they themselves lie in wait for their own blood, and practise deceits against their own souls.
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So the wage of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors.
Warning against neglecting wisdom
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Wisdom preacheth abroad, she uttereth her voice in the streets:
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At the head of multitudes she crieth out, in the entrance of the gates of the city she uttereth her words, saying:
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O children, how long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge?
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Turn ye at my reproof: behold I will utter my spirit to you, and will shew you my words.
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Because I called, and you refused: I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded.
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You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions.
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I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.
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When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you:
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Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning and shall not find me:
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Because they have hated instruction and received not the fear of the Lord,
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Nor consented to my counsel, but despised all my reproof.
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Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and shall be filled with their own devices.
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The turning away of little ones shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
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But he that shall hear me, shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils.