Proverbs for Skeptics
There are a lot of good sayings in Proverbs. Here are a few of my favorites:
- "Let not mercy and truth
forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine
heart." 3:3
- "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth.... Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be
thou ravished always with her love." 5:18-19
- "Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning." 7:18
- "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind." 11:29
- "The simple believeth every word." 14:15
- "A soft answer turneth away wrath." 15:1
- "The hoary head is a crown of glory." 16:31
- "Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad
when he stumbleth." 24:17
- "Say not, I will do so
to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his
work." 24:29
- "Let another man praise
thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips." 27:2
- "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and
forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." 31:6-7
But there's plenty of bad stuff, too. For example:
- God will laugh at your misfortunes, mock you when you are afraid, and
ignore you when you ask him for help. 1:26-28
- Watch out for those strange, brawling, angry, contentious, adulterous,
odious women. 2:16-18, 5:3-5,
6:24-26, 7:5-27, 21:19 22:14, 23:27-28, 25:24, 27:15, 30:20, 30:23
- Foolish women are simple and know nothing; they drag innocent men into
hell. 9:13
- "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is
without discretion." 11:22
- Beat the hell out of your children. 13:24, 19:18, 22:15, 23:13-14, 29:15
- "The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil; so do stripes the
inward parts of the belly." 20:30
- The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous. 21:18
- Beat your slaves just like you do your children. Don't try to correct them
with words. 29:19
- If you mock your father or disobey your mother, the ravens will pick out
your eyeballs and feed them to the eagles. 30:17
On the whole, though, I'd say the good in Proverbs outweighs the bad, which is something
I can say for only one other book in the Bible: Ecclesiastes (which is by far the best book in the Bible).