About that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man named Hirah, who was from the town of Adullam.

Judah sent his friend Hirah to take the goat and get back from the woman the articles he had pledged, but Hirah could not find her.

and his wife was given to the man that had been his best man at the wedding.

But he controlled himself and went on home. Then he invited his friends to his house and asked his wife Zeresh to join them.

So his wife and all his friends suggested, "Why don't you have a gallows built, seventy-five feet tall? Tomorrow morning you can ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it, and then you can go to the banquet happy." Haman thought this was a good idea, so he had the gallows built.

He told his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then she and those wise friends of his told him, "You are beginning to lose power to Mordecai. He is a Jew, and you cannot overcome him. He will certainly defeat you."

Everyone tries to gain the favor of important people; everyone claims the friendship of those who give out favors.

But Jonadab, the son of David's brother Shammah, said, "Your Majesty, they haven't killed all your sons. Only Amnon is dead. You could tell by looking at Absalom that he had made up his mind to do this from the time that Amnon raped his sister Tamar.

Jesse then brought Shammah. "No, the LORD hasn't chosen him either," Samuel said.

so he sent for a clever woman who lived in Tekoa. When she arrived, he said to her, "Pretend that you are in mourning; put on your mourning clothes, and don't comb your hair. Act like a woman who has been in mourning for a long time.

"Did Joab put you up to this?" he asked her. She answered, "I swear by all that is sacred, Your Majesty, that there is no way to avoid answering your question. It was indeed your officer Joab who told me what to do and what to say.

But he did it in order to straighten out this whole matter. Your Majesty is as wise as the angel of God and knows everything that happens."

Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the LORD God had made. The snake asked the woman, "Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?"

The LORD says, "My people are stupid; they don't know me. They are like foolish children; they have no understanding. They are experts at doing what is evil, but failures at doing what is good."

For what this world considers to be wisdom is nonsense in God's sight. As the scripture says, "God traps the wise in their cleverness";

Such wisdom does not come down from heaven; it belongs to the world, it is unspiritual and demonic.