²¹ The lips of the righteous nourish many,
    but fools die for lack of sense.^(A)

⁶     my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.^(A)

“Because you have rejected knowledge,
    I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law^(B) of your God,
    I also will ignore your children.

¹⁶ Why should fools have money in hand to buy wisdom,
    when they are not able to understand it?^(A)

²⁹ since they hated knowledge
    and did not choose to fear the Lord.^(A)

³ Think how you have instructed many,^(A)
    how you have strengthened feeble hands.^(B)
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled;^(C)
    you have strengthened faltering knees.^(D)

⁴ The soothing tongue^(A) is a tree of life,^(B)
    but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.^(C)

²³ For lack of discipline they will die,^(A)
    led astray by their own great folly.^(B)