Proverbs 30

¹These are the words of King Lemuel—the burden that his mother taught him:

¹⁹We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation.

²²I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.

¹²and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

²The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.

⁵Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

⁶A senseless man does not know, and a fool does not understand,

¹⁸will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth

¹⁹of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

⁷To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.

¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

³³O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

⁷Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?

⁸They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

¹⁴“I was not a prophet,” Amos replied, “nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.

¹⁵But the Lord took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’

¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.

⁸This is why it says: “When He ascended on high, He led captives away, and gave gifts to men.”

⁹What does “He ascended” mean, except that He also descended to the lower parts of the earth?

⁸He wraps up the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their own weight.

⁶For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.

¹²It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’

³⁰As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

⁶The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace, like gold purified sevenfold.

¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.

¹¹For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

³But You, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.

¹⁴⁰Your promise is completely pure; therefore Your servant loves it.

³²See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.

²You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you.

¹⁸I testify to everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

¹⁹And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and the holy city, which are described in this book.

⁷Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf or speak deceitfully for Him?

⁸Would you show Him partiality or argue in His defense?

¹⁵In that case, we are also exposed as false witnesses about God. For we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead, but He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised.

⁴²But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”

⁴One thing I have asked of the Lord; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and seek Him in His temple.

⁹After they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken away from you?” “Please, let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

⁵One night at Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

⁶Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

²You have granted his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah

⁶Of course, godliness with contentment is great gain.

⁷For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot carry anything out of it.

⁹Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.

¹⁰Place no trust in extortion or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.

³⁷Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.

³³But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

³Give us each day our daily bread.

²⁹Remove me from the path of deceit and graciously grant me Your law.

⁶When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.

²⁰When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant.

⁴⁹Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.

⁵⁰Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen.

¹⁰When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the Lord your God for the good land that He has given you.

¹¹Be careful not to forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments and ordinances and statutes, which I am giving you this day.

²⁵They captured fortified cities and fertile land and took houses full of all goods, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled; they grew fat and delighted in Your great goodness.

²⁶But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.

¹⁵But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

²¹Do not pay attention to every word that is spoken, or you may hear your servant cursing you.

⁴Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁸At this time some astrologers came forward and maliciously accused the Jews,

⁹saying to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, may you live forever!

²⁶“My lord the king,” he replied, “because I am lame, I said, ‘I will have my donkey saddled so that I may ride on it and go with the king.’ But my servant Ziba deceived me,

²⁷and he has slandered your servant to my lord the king. Yet my lord the king is like the angel of God, so do what is good in your eyes.

²²Thus King Joash failed to remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him. Instead, Joash killed Jehoiada’s son. As he lay dying, Zechariah said, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”

²³In the spring, the army of Aram went to war against Joash. They entered Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the leaders of the people, and they sent all the plunder to their king in Damascus.

¹³Then they told the king, “Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, shows no regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed. He still makes his petition three times a day.”

²⁰Whoever curses his father or mother, his lamp will be extinguished in deepest darkness.

¹⁶‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁷As for the eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother, may the ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures devour it.

¹⁷Anyone who curses his father or mother must surely be put to death.

¹²There is a generation of those who are pure in their own eyes and yet unwashed of their filth.

¹³There is a generation—how haughty are their eyes and pretentious are their glances—

⁹If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood shall be upon him.

¹¹The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

²All a man’s ways are pure in his own eyes, but his motives are weighed out by the Lord.

⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!

³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

⁵He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

⁷But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

¹¹The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

⁵Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.

¹A song of ascents. Of David. My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me.

⁹Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you.

⁴Haughty eyes and a proud heart—the guides of the wicked—are sin.

⁴My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

⁷Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.

⁴Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the Lord.

¹⁷I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.

⁶O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O Lord, tear out the fangs of the lions.

⁸They had hair like that of women, and teeth like those of lions.

²¹Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up:

¹⁸For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

¹⁶There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him:

²⁹There are three things that are stately in their stride, and four that are impressive in their walk:

¹¹Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed for profit into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

¹²These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.

³⁹“Abraham is our father,” they replied. “If you were children of Abraham,” said Jesus, “you would do the works of Abraham.

²⁰Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

⁵and wealth indeed betrays him. He is an arrogant man never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself and collects all the peoples as his own.

¹When Rachel saw that she was not bearing any children for Jacob, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.

¹¹There is a generation of those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.

²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

¹⁸If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,

¹⁹his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown,

⁹If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood shall be upon him.

²⁰Whoever curses his father or mother, his lamp will be extinguished in deepest darkness.

¹⁴But Joab declared, “I am not going to wait like this with you!” And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak tree.

¹⁵And ten young men who carried Joab’s armor surrounded Absalom, struck him, and killed him.

³You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

¹³She seizes him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him:

¹⁴“I have made my peace offerings; today I have paid my vows.

⁶She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.

¹¹Then the Lord said to Moses,

¹²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him

¹⁰Luxury is unseemly for a fool—how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!

⁷I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves.

³⁶When Abigail returned to Nabal, there he was in the house, holding a feast fit for a king, in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing until morning light.

³⁷In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these events, and his heart failed within him, and he became like a stone.

³His name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings.

¹⁰But Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants these days are breaking away from their masters.

¹¹Why should I take my bread and water and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give them to these men whose origin I do not know?”

⁴“I will make mere lads their leaders, and children will rule over them.”

⁵The people will oppress one another, man against man, neighbor against neighbor; the young will rise up against the old, and the base against the honorable.

¹⁹Better to live in the desert than with a contentious and ill-tempered wife.

¹⁵A constant dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike—

⁹Better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

²¹A servant pampered from his youth will bring grief in the end.

¹³A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.

⁷But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you.

⁶Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise.

⁷Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler,

¹⁸The high mountains are for the wild goats, the cliffs a refuge for the rock badgers.

⁵The rock badger, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you.

⁶For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.

⁷It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.

⁷They charge like mighty men; they scale the walls like men of war. Each one marches in formation, not swerving from the course.

⁸They do not jostle one another; each proceeds in his path. They burst through the defenses, never breaking ranks.

³⁴He spoke, and the locusts came—young locusts without number.

⁴But if you refuse to let My people go, I will bring locusts into your territory tomorrow.

⁵They will cover the face of the land so that no one can see it. They will devour whatever is left after the hail and eat every tree that grows in your fields.

²⁵I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts—the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust—My great army that I sent against you.

³And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth.

⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

¹⁸Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the city said to Samson: “What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?” So he said to them: “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle!”

²⁴Behold, the people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion, not resting until they devour their prey and drink the blood of the slain.”

¹⁵Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”

¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

²The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion; whoever provokes him forfeits his own life.

¹⁴The wrath of a king is a messenger of death, but a wise man will pacify it.

⁵Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

⁴“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.

¹⁶Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will become deaf.

¹⁷They will lick the dust like a snake, like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will come trembling from their strongholds in the presence of the Lord our God; they will tremble in fear of You.

¹²Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

³Do not hasten to leave his presence, and do not persist in a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases.

⁴For the king’s word is supreme, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

²²An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.

¹⁴To start a quarrel is to release a flood; so abandon the dispute before it breaks out.

²⁵A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper.

¹⁸A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.

²¹Like charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

²⁸A perverse man spreads dissension, and a gossip divides close friends.