1 Of these things be not thou ashamed, and accept no person to sin thereby: |
2 Of the law of the most High, and his covenant; and of judgment to justify the ungodly; |
3 Of reckoning with thy partners and travellers; or of the gift of the heritage of friends; |
4 Of exactness of balance and weights; or of getting much or little; |
5 And of merchants' indifferent selling; of much correction of children; and to make the side of an evil servant to bleed. |
6 Sure keeping is good, where an evil wife is; and shut up, where many hands are. |
7 Deliver all things in number and weight; and put all in writing that thou givest out, or receivest in. |
8 Be not ashamed to inform the unwise and foolish, and the extreme aged that contendeth with those that are young: thus shalt thou be truly learned, and approved of all men living. |
9 The father waketh for the daughter, when no man knoweth; and the care for her taketh away sleep: when she is young, lest she pass away the flower of her age; and being married, lest she should be hated: |
10 In her virginity, lest she should be defiled and gotten with child in her father's house; and having an husband, lest she should misbehave herself; and when she is married, lest she should be barren. |
11 Keep a sure watch over a shameless daughter, lest she make thee a laughingstock to thine enemies, and a byword in the city, and a reproach among the people, and make thee ashamed before the multitude. |
12 Behold not every body's beauty, and sit not in the midst of women. |
13 For from garments cometh a moth, and from women wickedness. |
14 Better is the churlishness of a man than a courteous woman, a woman, I say, which bringeth shame and reproach. |
15 I will now remember the works of the Lord, and declare the things that I have seen: In the words of the Lord are his works. |
16 The sun that giveth light looketh upon all things, and the work thereof is full of the glory of the Lord. |
17 The Lord hath not given power to the saints to declare all his marvellous works, which the Almighty Lord firmly settled, that whatsoever is might be established for his glory. |
18 He seeketh out the deep, and the heart, and considereth their crafty devices: for the Lord knoweth all that may be known, and he beholdeth the signs of the world. |
19 He declareth the things that are past, and for to come, and revealeth the steps of hidden things. |
20 No thought escapeth him, neither any word is hidden from him. |
21 He hath garnished the excellent works of his wisdom, and he is from everlasting to everlasting: unto him may nothing be added, neither can he be diminished, and he hath no need of any counsellor. |
22 Oh how desirable are all his works! and that a man may see even to a spark. |
23 All these things live and remain for ever for all uses, and they are all obedient. |
24 All things are double one against another: and he hath made nothing imperfect. |
25 One thing establisheth the good or another: and who shall be filled with beholding his glory? |
