Proverbs 24:30–34

¹¹He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.

⁶¶ Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

⁷Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

⁸Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

⁹How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

¹⁰Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

¹¹So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

¹²¶ A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

¹³He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

¹⁴Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

¹⁵Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

¹⁶¶ These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

¹⁷A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

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

¹⁹A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

⁹All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

¹⁰And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.

¹¹Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

⁸Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

¹SO I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

²Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.

³Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

⁴¶ Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

⁵The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.

⁶Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.

⁷¶ Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun.

⁸There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

¹⁷I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;

²⁷Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good.

¹³In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.

³²But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

²⁵I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

¹⁵All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.

⁴²The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.

⁵And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:

¹⁸¶ By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.

¹⁷And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

¹⁸Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

¹⁹In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

³¶ For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

²²He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

¹³The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.

⁸But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

⁴⁰Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.

⁷And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

²³The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.

⁴The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.

²¹For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

¹¹Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

⁶Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

¹¹And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.

²¹And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

²⁹O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

¹⁷What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?

⁵I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

⁶And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

⁷Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

¹⁹But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

⁵¹And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

⁴Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

⁶Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

⁷For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

⁸But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

⁴Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.

⁵Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶¶ Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

⁷Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

⁸Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

⁹How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

¹⁰Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

¹¹So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

¹¹And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

¹⁴Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

⁴He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

⁴The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.