save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.
but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.
keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice,
and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense,
passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house
in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.
All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.
On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;
beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
“To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man.
All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice,
“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.
Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth,
before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.
When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.
Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.
For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord,
She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town,
“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing.
She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.
The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.
A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.
The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin.
Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
ESV® Permanent Text Edition (2016). The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers.
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