Proverbs 1:1-20 (Vespers, 2nd reading)
- 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, judgment, and equity;
- 4
- to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion –
- 5
- a wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
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- to understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles.
- 7
- The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
- 8
- My son, hear the instruction of your father,
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- for they will be a graceful ornament on your head, and chains about your neck.
- 10
- My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
- 11
- If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood; let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;
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- let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the Pit;
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- we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil;
- 14
- cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse” –
- 15
- my son, do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path;
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- for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.
- 17
- Surely, in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird;
- 18
- but they lie in wait for their own blood, they lurk secretly for their own lives.
- 19
- So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; it takes away the life of its owners.
- 20
- Wisdom calls aloud outside; she raises her voice in the open squares.