Proverbs 1:10-19 My son, if sinners entice you, consent you not.… Midas, the Phrygian king, asked a favour of the gods, and they agreed to grant him whatever he should desire. The monarch, overjoyed, resolved to make the favour inexhaustible. He prayed that whatever he touched might be turned into gold. The prayer was granted, and bitter were the consequences. Whatever the poor king touched did turn to gold. He laid his hand upon a rock, and it became a huge mass of gold of priceless value; he clutched his oaken staff, and it became in his hand a bar of virgin gold. At first the monarch's joy was unbounded, and he returned to his palace the most favoured of mortals. Alas for the short-sightedness of man! He sat at table, and all he touched turned in mockery of his wish to gold — pure, solid gold. Then the conviction came rushing upon his humbled mind, that he must perish from his grasping wish — die in the midst of plenty; and remembering the ominous saying he had heard, "The gods themselves cannot take back their gifts," he howled to the sternly smiling Dionysius to restore him to the coarsest, vilest food, and deliver him from the curse of gold. Parallel Verses KJV: My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. |
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