1Wine is a mocker and beer is a brawler.
Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
2The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion.
He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.
3It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife,
but every fool will be quarreling.
4The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter;
therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.
5Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water,
but a man of understanding will draw it out.
6Many men claim to be men of unfailing love,
but who can find a faithful man?
7A righteous man walks in integrity.
Blessed are his children after him.
8A king who sits on the throne of judgment
scatters away all evil with his eyes.
9Who can say, “I have made my heart pure.
I am clean and without sin?”
10Differing weights and differing measures,
both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh.
11Even a child makes himself known by his doings,
whether his work is pure, and whether it is right.
12The hearing ear, and the seeing eye,
Yahweh has made even both of them.
13Don’t love sleep, lest you come to poverty.
Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread.
14“It’s no good, it’s no good,” says the buyer;
but when he is gone his way, then he boasts.
15There is gold and abundance of rubies,
but the lips of knowledge are a rare jewel.
16Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger;
and hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.
17Fraudulent food is sweet to a man,
but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel.
18Plans are established by advice;
by wise guidance you wage war!
19He who goes about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets;
therefore don’t keep company with him who opens wide his lips.
20Whoever curses his father or his mother,
his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.
21An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning
won’t be blessed in the end.
22Don’t say, “I will pay back evil.”
Wait for Yahweh, and he will save you.
23Yahweh detests differing weights,
and dishonest scales are not pleasing.
24A man’s steps are from Yahweh;
how then can man understand his way?
25It is a snare to a man to make a rash dedication,
then later to consider his vows.
26A wise king winnows out the wicked,
and drives the threshing wheel over them.
27The spirit of man is Yahweh’s lamp,
searching all his innermost parts.
28Love and faithfulness keep the king safe.
His throne is sustained by love.
29The glory of young men is their strength.
The splendor of old men is their gray hair.
30Wounding blows cleanse away evil,
and beatings purge the innermost parts.
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)