Today's Reading

Proverbs 1-3

Proverbs Chapter 1
1 - The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
2 - To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
3 - To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
4 - To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
5 - A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6 - To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8 - My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
9 - For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
10 - My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
11 - If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
12 - Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
13 - We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
14 - Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
15 - My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
16 - For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
17 - Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
18 - And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
19 - So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
20 - Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
21 - She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
22 - How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 - Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24 - Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 - But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26 - I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
27 - When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
28 - Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 - For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 - They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 - Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
32 - For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 - But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Proverbs Chapter 2
1 - My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
2 - So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
3 - Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 - If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 - Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 - For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7 - He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 - He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
9 - Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 - When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11 - Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
12 - To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
13 - Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
14 - Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;
15 - Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:
16 - To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
17 - Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
18 - For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
19 - None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
20 - That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
21 - For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
22 - But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

Proverbs Chapter 3
1 - My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
2 - For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
3 - Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
4 - So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
5 - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 - In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
7 - Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
8 - It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
9 - Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
10 - So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
11 - My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
12 - For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
13 - Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
14 - For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
15 - She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
16 - Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
17 - Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
18 - She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
19 - The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
20 - By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
21 - My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion:
22 - So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.
23 - Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.
24 - When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.
25 - Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.
26 - For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.
27 - Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
28 - Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.
29 - Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.
30 - Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.
31 - Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.
32 - For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous.
33 - The curse of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.
34 - Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
35 - The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.