New Living Translation | King James Bible |
1These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel. | 1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; |
2Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. | 2To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; |
3Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. | 3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; |
4These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. | 4To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. |
5Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance | 5A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: |
6by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles. | 6To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. |
7Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. A Father’s Exhortation: Acquire Wisdom | 7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. |
8My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction. | 8My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: |
9What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck. | 9For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. |
10My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them! | 10My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. |
11They may say, “Come and join us. Let’s hide and kill someone! Just for fun, let’s ambush the innocent! | 11If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: |
12Let’s swallow them alive, like the grave ; let’s swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death. | 12Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: |
13Think of the great things we’ll get! We’ll fill our houses with all the stuff we take. | 13We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: |
14Come, throw in your lot with us; we’ll all share the loot.” | 14Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: |
15My child, don’t go along with them! Stay far away from their paths. | 15My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: |
16They rush to commit evil deeds. They hurry to commit murder. | 16For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. |
17If a bird sees a trap being set, it knows to stay away. | 17Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. |
18But these people set an ambush for themselves; they are trying to get themselves killed. | 18And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. |
19Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of life. Wisdom Shouts in the Streets | 19So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. |
20Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. | 20Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: |
21She calls to the crowds along the main street, to those gathered in front of the city gate: | 21She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, |
22“How long, you simpletons, will you insist on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will you fools hate knowledge? | 22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? |
23Come and listen to my counsel. I’ll share my heart with you and make you wise. | 23Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. |
24“I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention. | 24Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; |
25You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered. | 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: |
26So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you— | 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; |
27when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone, and anguish and distress overwhelm you. | 27When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. |
28“When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me. | 28Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: |
29For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. | 29For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: |
30They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. | 30They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. |
31Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes. | 31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. |
32For simpletons turn away from me—to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency. | 32For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. |
33But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.” | 33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. |
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. |
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