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Mishlei / משלי / 箴 言 /Proverbs  Chapter 1

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The Begining of Knowledge

1:1 Mishle Sh'lomo (שׁלמה) Ben David, melekh Yisra'el:

1:2 To know chokmah (wisdom) and musar (discipline); to discern (perceive) the sayings of understanding;

1:3 To receive the musar (discipline) of chokmah, tzedek, and mishpat (judgment), and equity;

1:4 To give prudence to the naive (simple), to the young man knowledge and discretion.

1:5 A wise [man] will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain to wise counsels:

1:6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

1:7 The fear of  YHVH (יהוה) [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise chokmah and instruction.

Shun Evil Counsel

1:8 Beni (my son):

Hear the musar (discipline) of your father, and forsake not the torat (instruction) of your mother:

1:9 For they [shall be] an ornament of grace to your head, and chains about your neck.

1:10 Beni (my son):

if sinners entice you, consent you not.

1:11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

1:12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

1:13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

1:14 Cast in your lot among us; let us all have one purse:

1:15 Beni (my son):

Walk not you in the way with them; refrain your foot from their path:

1:16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

1:17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

1:18 And they lay wait for their [own] blood; they lurk privily for their [own] lives.

1:19 So [are] the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; [which] takes away the life of the owners thereof.

The call of Chokmah (wisdom)

1:20 Chokmah (wisdom) cries without; she utters her voice in the streets:

1:21 She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she utters her words, [saying],

1:22 How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit to you, I will make known my words to you.

1:24 Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

1:25 But you have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;

1:27 When your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish comes upon you.

1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of  YHVH (יהוה):

1:30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

1:31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

1:32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

1:33 But whoso listens to me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.


1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31

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Chinese Reading : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Authorship

Melekh Shlomo Ben David - he wrote three books in the various stage of his life:-

The Outline Overview

The Proverbs of Shlomo Ben David, Melekh Yisrael - 1:1-9:18 (1:1)

The Proverbs of Shlomo (10:1) - 10:1-22:16

The Words of the Sages (22:17 emended) - 22:17-24:22

These also are by the Sages (24:23) - 24:23-24

These too are proverbs of Shlomo, which the men of Melekh Hetzekiyah of Yehudah copied  (25:1)

Appendices - 30:1-31:31

The words of Agur Ben Yakeh - 30:1-14

Numercial epigrams - 30:15-33

The Words of Lemuel (למוּאל) - 31:1-9

The Women of Strength - 31:10-31

Purpose and Theme

It is give a course of instruction in wisdom, preparation for life, and the ways of life in Hashem's kingdom.  The words " the fear of YHVH is the beginning of knowledge (1:7) set the record straight, this is the foundation on which all other wise sayings stand. It is the Sefer Mishlei (Proverbs) central idea: Fear of YHVH motivates us to obey Hashem's mitzvot and obedience to them constitute true wisdom.

Some Mishlei verses cross- reference in Brit Hadashah scriptures

Mishlei  3:4 Romaios 12:17, 2 Korintos 8:21

Mishlei 3:11 - Ephesios 6:4

Mishlei  3:11-12 - Hebrews 12:5-6

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Mishlei  3:12 - Revelations 3:19

Mishlei  3:34 - Yaakov 4:6; 1 Kefa 5:5<

Mishlei 4:-26 -  Hebrews 12:13

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Mishlei  7:3  - 2 Korintos 3:3

Mishlei 10:12  Yaakov 5:20; 1 Kefa 4:8

Mishlei 24:12 Romaios 2:6; 2 Timotheos 4:14; Revelation 2:23; 20;12-13

Mishlei 25:21-22  Romaios 12:20