who serve in the Lord’s temple, in the courts of the temple of our God.

“How long will you simpletons love naiveté? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?

Listen, my child, and accept my words, so that the years of your life will be many.

When you walk, your steps will not be hampered, and when you run, you will not stumble.

All of them are clear to the discerning and upright to those who find knowledge.

before he made the earth and its fields, or the beginning of the dust of the world.

The scorner seeks wisdom but finds none, but understanding is easy for a discerning person.

The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Starting a quarrel is like letting out water; stop it before strife breaks out!

The discerning person acquires knowledge, and the wise person seeks knowledge.

Listen to advice and receive discipline, that you may become wise by the end of your life.

The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! A lion in the streets!”

The one who covers his transgressions will not prosper, but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy.

The one who robs his father and mother and says, “There is no transgression,” is a companion to the one who destroys.

The earth is broken in pieces, the earth is ripped to shreds, the earth shakes violently.

This is what the Lord says, the one who made a road through the sea, a pathway through the surging waters,

On every high, elevated hill you prepare your bed; you go up there to offer sacrifices.

who led them through the deep water? Like a horse running on flat land they did not stumble.

Then the Lord said, “This means destruction will break out from the north on all who live in the land.

But the people of Jerusalem and Judah would not listen or pay any attention. They would not stop the wickedness they were doing nor quit sacrificing to other gods.