箴言 第 30 章

My son, fear my words, and having received them, repent. Thus says the man to those who believe God, and then I cease.

For I am the most foolish of all men, and the understanding of men is not in me.

God has taught me wisdom, and I have come to know the knowledge of the holy ones.

Who went up into heaven and came down? Who gathered the winds in his bosom? Who wrapped up water in a garment? Who took hold of all the ends of the earth? What is his name, or what is the name of his children, that you may know?

All the words of God are refined by fire, and he himself is a shield to those who reverence him.

Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you and you become a liar.

Two things I ask of you: do not take away my favour before I die.

Put vain and false speech far from me; and give me neither riches nor poverty, but appoint for me what is needful and what is sufficient.

lest, being filled, I become a liar and say, 'Who sees me?' or, being made poor, I steal and swear by the name of God.

Do not hand over a household servant into the hands of his master, lest he curse you and you be wiped out.

An evil offspring curses his father and does not bless his mother.

An evil offspring judges himself righteous, yet has not washed his own outgoing.

An evil offspring has lofty eyes, and lifts himself up with his eyelids.

An evil offspring has swords for teeth and cutters for molars, so as to consume and devour the lowly from the earth, and the needy among them from among men.

The leech had three daughters, dearly beloved; and these three did not fill her, and the fourth was not content to say, 'Enough.'

Hades, and a woman's love, and Tartarus, and earth not filled with water; and water and fire—they will never say, 'It is enough.'

The eye that mocks a father and dishonours a mother's old age—may the ravens from the ravines pluck it out, and may the young of the eagles devour it.

There are three things impossible for me to understand, and the fourth I do not know:

the tracks of a flying eagle, and the ways of a serpent on a rock, and the paths of a ship crossing the sea, and the ways of a man in his youth.

Such is the way of an adulterous woman: when she has done the deed, she washes herself and says she has done nothing amiss.

By three things the earth is shaken, and the fourth it cannot bear:

if a household servant becomes king, and if a fool is filled with food,

and if a maidservant casts out her own mistress, and if a hateful woman obtains a good husband.

There are four things that are least upon the earth, yet these are wiser than the wise:

the ants, which have no strength, and yet prepare their food in summer;

and the rock badgers, a nation not strong, which made their houses among the rocks;

the locust is without a king, and yet it marches out in good order at a single command;

and the lizard, supporting itself with its hands and easily caught, dwells in the strongholds of a king.

There are three things that go along well, and a fourth that passes by handsomely:

a lion's cub, stronger than the beasts, which does not turn away nor cower before any beast;

and a cock strutting courageously among the hens; and a he-goat leading the flock of goats; and a king making a public speech among his nation.

If you give yourself over to merriment and stretch out your hand in a fight, you will be dishonoured.

Milk milk and there will be butter; but if you squeeze the nostrils, blood will come out; and if you drag out words, lawsuits and fights will come out.