1The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh.
2All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes,
but Yahweh weighs the motives.
3Commit your deeds to Yahweh,
and your plans shall succeed.
4Yahweh has made everything for its own end—
yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.
5Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh;
they shall certainly not be unpunished.
6By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for.
By the fear of Yahweh men depart from evil.
7When a man’s ways please Yahweh,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
8Better is a little with righteousness,
than great revenues with injustice.
9A man’s heart plans his course,
but Yahweh directs his steps.
10Inspired judgments are on the lips of the king.
He shall not betray his mouth.
11Honest balances and scales are Yahweh’s;
all the weights in the bag are his work.
12It is an abomination for kings to do wrong,
for the throne is established by righteousness.
13Righteous lips are the delight of kings.
They value one who speaks the truth.
14The king’s wrath is a messenger of death,
but a wise man will pacify it.
15In the light of the king’s face is life.
His favor is like a cloud of the spring rain.
16How much better it is to get wisdom than gold!
Yes, to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
17The highway of the upright is to depart from evil.
He who keeps his way preserves his soul.
18Pride goes before destruction,
and an arrogant spirit before a fall.
19It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor,
than to divide the plunder with the proud.
20He who heeds the Word finds prosperity.
Whoever trusts in Yahweh is blessed.
21The wise in heart shall be called prudent.
Pleasantness of the lips promotes instruction.
22Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it,
but the punishment of fools is their folly.
23The heart of the wise instructs his mouth,
and adds learning to his lips.
24Pleasant words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
25There is a way which seems right to a man,
but in the end it leads to death.
26The appetite of the laboring man labors for him,
for his mouth urges him on.
27A worthless man devises mischief.
His speech is like a scorching fire.
28A perverse man stirs up strife.
A whisperer separates close friends.
29A man of violence entices his neighbor,
and leads him in a way that is not good.
30One who winks his eyes to plot perversities,
one who compresses his lips, is bent on evil.
31Gray hair is a crown of glory.
It is attained by a life of righteousness.
32One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
one who rules his spirit, than he who takes a city.
33The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from Yahweh.
There is controversy today in the Christian community far more important than differences among believers in many decades regarding the nature of the Genesis account in Genesis 1, 2, & 3. Liberal scholars have generally believed the creation account was not truly representative of an actual event but embraced a Darwinist explanation of the creation of the world (what is often called macro-evolution), that contends that all of life on earth developed from very small forms of life that were created by an accident in the primordial fluids of ancient earth billions of years ago. Even so, the current debate extends much further than believing in long periods for the creation days and even accepting some form of evolution. The current debate is whether Adam and Eve and the events transpiring around them in the biblical account ever occurred and whether Genesis is only a myth rather than factual history.
Christians, through most of Christian history (and the Jewish people before Christianity), have embraced a literal and factual creation by God that is found in Genesis 1, as well as the more detailed creation of humans in Genesis 2. In current Christianity, several scholars, who are generally conservative in most areas of theology, are advocating that the Genesis One account is, in reality, a myth or fiction. Moreover, there is a rejection of an actual Adam and Eve, a temptation and fall, and many of the events in the book of Genesis and elsewhere in the Old Testament. Allegedly, God only inspired a mythical account that provided a story in which He could teach an inerrant truth about Himself being the ultimate Creator of the universe.
However, there are several reasons to reject this manner of interpreting Genesis. First, this alternate view is contrary to the understanding of various persons in the Old Testament, Jesus, the apostles, and the church for most of its history. Second, though the factual account of creation and the fall arguably contains some poetic features, the essence is a true and historical account that is consistent with the mainstream scientific understanding of the chronology of the creative events. Additionally, the biblical account of creation is not in agreement with Ancient Near East creation stories, upon which many current scholars rely in rejecting the factual, historical account found in Scripture, as well as the uniqueness of the Genesis account of creation. As the literary scholar C. S. Lewis once stated, "Myth comes from history and not history from myth."
I would encourage you to view the free YouTube video, Is Genesis History? Click https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UM82qxxskZE&feature=youtu.be in the browser of your phone, iPad, or Computer for this excellent discussion of the historicity of the book of Genesis.
The writers of the Bible believed in the historical doctrine of the creation of the world and the specific creation of Adam and Eve. The Bible contains about 300 verses on creation.
Gen 1:1-27; 2:1-23; 3:1, 19, 23; 5:1, 2; 6:6, 7; 7:4; 9:6
Exod 4:11, 32; 14:21; 20:11; 31:17
Job 4:7; 9:8, 9; 10:8; 26:7; 28:6; 31:15; 32:22; 33:4, 6, 7; 34:15; 38:4-6; 40:15
Ps 8:3-8; 19:1-4; 24:1; 33:6; 52:7; 86:9; 89:11, 12; 90:2, 3; 94:9; 95:5, 6; 96:5; 100:3; 102:25; 104:2-5, 19, 24, 25, 30; 115:8, 15; 119:73; 121:2; 125:3, 8; 135:7; 139:14, 15; 146:6; 148:1-5
Prov 8:23-29; 14:31; 16:4; 17:5; 20:1, 2, 12; 22:2; 26:10
Eccl 3:11; 7:14, 29; 11:5; 12:1, 7
Isa 17:7; 22:11; 27:11; 29:16; 37:16, 26; 40:21, 26, 28; 41:20; 42:5; 43:1, 7, 10, 17, 21; 44:2, 21, 24; 45:7, 8, 12, 18; 48:13; 49:5; 51:13, 16; 66:2, 22
Jer 1:5; 10:11-13, 16; 27:5; 29:9; 31:35; 32:17; 33:2; 51:15, 16
Matt 13:35; 19:4, 5, 6, 8; 24:21; 25:34
John 1:3, 10; 8:44; 9:32; 17:24
Rom 1:19, 20; 5:12, 14-19; 8:19-23, 39; Rom 13:1, 4
1 Cor 11:3, 8, 9, 12; 15:22, 38, 45-47, 49
Eph 1:4, 39
1 Tim 2:13, 14; 4:3, 4
Heb 1:2, 3, 10, 14; 3:4; 4:3, 4, 10, 13; 9:11, 26; 12:27
Rev 3:14; 4:8-11; 10:6; 13:8; 14:7; 17:8; 21:1, 5; 22:13
Knowing the Truth about Creation, p. 150, from Norm Geisler, The Importance of Creation (PowerPoint Presentation)