Proverbs of Solomon and sayings of the wise · The Song of Songs

Proverbs 23–24 WEB

^23:1When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you; ²put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite. ³Don’t be desirous of his dainties, since they are deceitful food. ⁴Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint. ⁵Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky. ⁶Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies, ⁷for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. ⁸You will vomit up the morsel which you have eaten and waste your pleasant words. ⁹Don’t speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words. ¹⁰Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless, ¹¹for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you. ¹²Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge. ¹³Don’t withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die. ¹⁴Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol. ¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine. ¹⁶Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. ¹⁷Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear the LORD all day long. ¹⁸Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off. ¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path! ²⁰Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat; ²¹for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags. ²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old. ²³Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding. ²⁴The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him. ²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice! ²⁶My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways. ²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well. ²⁸Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men. ²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? ³⁰Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine. ³¹Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. ³²In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper. ³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things. ³⁴Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging: ³⁵“They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more.”

^24:1Don’t be envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them; ²for their hearts plot violence and their lips talk about mischief. ³Through wisdom a house is built; by understanding it is established; ⁴by knowledge the rooms are filled with all rare and beautiful treasure. ⁵A wise man has great power. A knowledgeable man increases strength, ⁶for by wise guidance you wage your war, and victory is in many advisors. ⁷Wisdom is too high for a fool. He doesn’t open his mouth in the gate. ⁸One who plots to do evil will be called a schemer. ⁹The schemes of folly are sin. The mocker is detested by men. ¹⁰If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small. ¹¹Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter! ¹²If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not give to every man according to his work? ¹³My son, eat honey, for it is good, the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste; ¹⁴so you shall know wisdom to be to your soul. If you have found it, then there will be a reward: Your hope will not be cut off. ¹⁵Don’t lay in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous. Don’t destroy his resting place; ¹⁶for a righteous man falls seven times and rises up again, but the wicked are overthrown by calamity. ¹⁷Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls. Don’t let your heart be glad when he is overthrown, ¹⁸lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. ¹⁹Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious of the wicked; ²⁰for there will be no reward to the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out. ²¹My son, fear the LORD and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious, ²²for their calamity will rise suddenly. Who knows what destruction may come from them both? ²³These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good. ²⁴He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” peoples will curse him, and nations will abhor him— ²⁵but it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and a rich blessing will come on them. ²⁶An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips. ²⁷Prepare your work outside, and get your fields ready. Afterwards, build your house. ²⁸Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without cause. Don’t deceive with your lips. ²⁹Don’t say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will repay the man according to his work.” ³⁰I went by the field of the sluggard, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding. ³¹Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. ³²Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction: ³³a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, ³⁴so your poverty will come as a robber and your want as an armed man.

Song of Solomon 1–3 WEB

^1:1The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s. ²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine. ³Your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is oil poured out, therefore the virgins love you. ⁴Take me away with you. Let’s hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! They are right to love you. ⁵I am dark, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like Kedar’s tents, like Solomon’s curtains. ⁶Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard. ⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; for why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions? ⁸If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents. ⁹I have compared you, my love, to a steed in Pharaoh’s chariots. ¹⁰Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. ¹¹We will make you earrings of gold, with studs of silver. ¹²While the king sat at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. ¹³My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh, that lies between my breasts. ¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi. ¹⁵Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are like doves. ¹⁶Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant; and our couch is verdant. ¹⁷The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.

^2:1I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. ²As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. ³As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, his fruit was sweet to my taste. ⁴He brought me to the banquet hall. His banner over me is love. ⁵Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples; for I am faint with love. ⁶His left hand is under my head. His right hand embraces me. ⁷I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires. ⁸The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes, leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills. ⁹My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. Behold, he stands behind our wall! He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice. ¹⁰My beloved spoke, and said to me, “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. ¹¹For behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. ¹²The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. ¹³The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give out their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.” ¹⁴My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountainside, let me see your face. Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. ¹⁵Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom. ¹⁶My beloved is mine, and I am his. He browses among the lilies. ¹⁷Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.

^3:1By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him. ²I will get up now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him. ³The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” ⁴I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me. ⁵I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love, until it so desires. ⁶Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant? ⁷Behold, it is Solomon’s carriage! Sixty mighty men are around it, of the mighty men of Israel. ⁸They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night. ⁹King Solomon made himself a carriage of the wood of Lebanon. ¹⁰He made its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it being paved with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem. ¹¹Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother has crowned him, in the day of his weddings, in the day of the gladness of his heart.