Proverbs 6:20–35

¹CHILDREN, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

¹⁶Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

¹MY son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

²Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

³Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

⁴Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

⁸My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

⁹For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

²²Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

¹⁸¶ If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:

¹¹There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.

³Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

³Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

⁴Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

³Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

⁸And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

¹⁶And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt.

⁶Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.

²¹Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

¹¹Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

²³Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.

²⁴When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

¹¹Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

²⁴Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellers.

⁹⁷O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

³O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

¹⁴⁸Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.

⁵⁴Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.

⁹Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

⁴Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

¹⁸After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him.

¹⁹Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.

²⁰Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.

²¹And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

¹⁰⁵Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

¹⁹We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

⁸The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

³¹The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise.

¹³Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

⁴He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.

⁸¶ And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

²⁴The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.

¹⁵The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

⁹⁸Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

⁹⁹I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

¹⁰⁰I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

⁵Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.

²⁰To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

¹⁸She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

⁵Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

¹⁷¶ Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.

¹²And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

¹⁶To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

³¶ For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

⁵That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

¹⁴But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

¹⁵Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

²⁸But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

³⁰¶ And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.

²¶ And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

³And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

⁴And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.

⁵And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.

¹⁶¶ Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:

⁹Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck.

³⁰But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

³Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance.

³⁶And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.

¹⁴That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice:

¹⁸And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?

⁸Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God.

¹³And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

¹⁴And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

¹⁵And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

⁸Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath.

¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

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

⁹If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;

¹⁰Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

¹¹For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

¹²For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

⁴They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

⁵In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

⁶For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

⁷They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

⁵Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

¹NOW concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

⁹Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

¹⁰Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

¹¹And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.

¹⁰¶ And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

⁵And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.

³And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

⁴And David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto her house.

²¹And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Go in unto thy father’s concubines, which he hath left to keep the house; and all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father: then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong.

¹⁸And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

¹⁹Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

¹⁰And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

¹¹And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

⁸They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

⁹Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

⁵Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

⁴But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?

⁵Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.

⁶And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.

⁷Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

³⁹Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,

⁸And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

⁶And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.

¹IF a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

²¶ If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.

³If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

⁴If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.

¹⁸That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

²⁵But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

⁷And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

⁴Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

²²He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

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

²²Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

²³And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

²⁴Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

²⁵I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

¹⁸For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

¹⁹None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

¹⁴Thou shalt not commit adultery.

⁹There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?

¹⁰And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.

³⁹And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:

³¹¶ Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

¹¹Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

¹²¶ My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

²¹Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

⁸They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

²²¶ His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

²³He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

³⁶But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

¹⁶Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

¹⁷Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

¹⁸But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

⁴Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,

⁹¶ O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

⁹Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

¹¹And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

⁵Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

⁴Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

¹⁹And she made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.

²⁰And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.

²¹¶ But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

⁶And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;

²⁶Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.

¹O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

²For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

³There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

⁴For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

⁵My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

⁶I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

⁷For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.

⁸I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

¹HAVE mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

⁸Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

¹⁴And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:

⁴Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

⁶¶ Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

²²Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?

²⁹¶ And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.

³⁰And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

¹¹Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

¹NOW Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

⁹And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.

⁹Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

³For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

²⁵Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: