Proverbs 30

¹The words of the Gatherer the son of Vomiter. The vision, that the man spake, with whom God is, and who being strengthened by God abiding with him, said:

²I am most foolish of men, & the wisdom of men is not with me.

³I have not learned wisdom, and have not known the science of saints.

⁴Who hath ascended into heaven and descended? Who hath contained the spirit in his hands? Who hath bound the waters together as in a garment? Who hath raised up all the borders of the earth? What is his name, and what is the name of his son, if thou know?

⁵Every word of God tried by fire, is a buckler to them that hope in him:

⁶Add not any thing to his words, and so thou be reproved and found a liar.

⁷Two things I have asked thee, deny them not to me before I die.

⁸Vanity, and lying words make far from me. Beggary, and riches give me not: give only things necessary for my sustenance:

⁹lest perhaps being filled I be allured to deny, and may say: Who is the Lord? Or being compelled by poverty I may steal, and forswear the name of my God.

¹⁰Accuse not a servant to his master, lest perhaps he curse thee, and thou fall.

¹¹There is a generation that curseth their father, and that blesseth not their mother.

¹²A generation, that seemeth to it-self clean, & yet is not washed from their filthiness.

¹³A generation, whose eyes are lofty, and the eye-lids thereof set up on high.

¹⁴A generation, that for teeth hath swords, and chaweth with their grinding teeth, that they may eat the needy out of the earth, and the poor from among men.

¹⁵The horseleech hath two daughters that say: Bring, bring. Three things are unsatiable, the fourth never saith it sufficeth.

¹⁶Hell, and the mouth of the matrice, & the earth which is not satisfied with water: but the fire never saith it sufficeth.

¹⁷The eye that scorneth his father, & that despiseth the travail of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens of the torrents pick it out, and the young of the eagle eat it.

¹⁸Three things are hard to me, and of the fourth I am utterly ignorant.

¹⁹The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man in youth.

²⁰Such is also the way of an adulterous woman, which eateth, and wiping her mouth saith: I have done no evil.

²¹By three things the earth is moved, and the fourth it cannot sustain.

²²By a servant when he shall reign: by a fool when he shall be filled with meat:

²³by an odious woman when she shall be taken in matrimony: & by a bond-woman when she shall be heir to her mistress.

²⁴There are four the least things of the earth, and they are wiser than the wise.

²⁵The ants, a weak people, which prepareth in the harvest meat for themselves:

²⁶The leveret, a people not strong, which placeth his bed in the rock:

²⁷The locust hath no king, and they go out all by their troops:

²⁸The stellion stayeth on his hands, & tarrieth in king's houses.

²⁹There are three things which go well, and the fourth that goeth happily.

³⁰The lion, the strongest of beasts shall fear at the meeting of none:

³¹the cock girded about the loins, and the ram: also the king, against whom none can resist.

³²There is that hath appeared a fool after that he was lifted up on high: for if he had understood, he would have laid his hand upon his mouth.

³³And he that strongly presseth the paps to wring out milk, straineth out butter, and he that violently cleanseth his nose, wringeth out blood: & he that provoketh angers, bringeth forth discords.