Proverbs 1:11–17

¹⁸And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

²⁶For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

⁶The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.

³And desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him.

¹⁸¶ Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

¹⁹Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.

²⁰Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

¹⁵Now therefore ye with the council signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you to morrow, as though ye would inquire something more perfectly concerning him: and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him.

¹⁹But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

²⁵But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

³Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,

⁴And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.

²The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

¹⁶For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

¹⁴There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

⁸He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

⁹He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

¹⁰He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.

¹²Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

⁷For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.

⁶They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.

⁵They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?

⁶They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.

³Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

¹UNTO thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.

¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

³⁴Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.

¹⁶All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

⁵The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

²Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

³Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

³⁰But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.

³¹¶ And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them:

³²And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.

³³They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.

¹⁰And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign.

⁷Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

²⁵Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up.

⁹For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

¹BE merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.

²Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.

³He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

⁹But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

²Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.

³They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

¹⁵And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

⁹The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.

¹³For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:

¹⁴And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

¹⁶He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord.

¹⁷But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

¹²The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.

¹⁹So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

⁹And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

¹⁰Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

¹¹And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

¹²The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

¹³And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

¹⁴And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

¹⁵The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

¹⁶And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

¹⁰¹I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.

¹BLESSED is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

¹⁴¶ Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.

¹⁵Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

²⁷Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

⁴I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.

⁵I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.

¹⁷Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

²⁰He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

⁶Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

¹⁰¶ Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

⁷Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.

¹⁸An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

¹⁶For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

⁵But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

⁷Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord.

¹¹Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?

²³Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

³The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.