²¹ The lips of the righteous feed many,
    but fools die for lack of sense.

⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!
    Because you have rejected knowledge,
    I reject you from being a priest to me;
and since you have forgotten the law of your God,
    I also will forget your children.^(A)

¹⁶ Why should fools have a price in hand
    to buy wisdom when they have no mind to learn?

²⁹ Because they hated knowledge
    and did not choose the fear of the Lord,

³ See, you have instructed many;
    you have strengthened the weak hands.^(A)
4 Your words have supported those who were stumbling,
    and you have made firm the feeble knees.^(B)

⁴ A gentle tongue is a tree of life,
    but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

²³ They die for lack of discipline,
    and because of their great folly they are lost.^(A)

¹² and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,
    and my heart despised reproof!^(A)