Proverbs 1

¹The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

²To know wisdom and instruction;

To discern the words of understanding;

³To receive instruction in wise dealing,

In righteousness and justice and equity;

⁴To give prudence to the simple,

To the young man knowledge and discretion:

⁵That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning;

And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:

⁶To understand a proverb, and a figure,

The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

⁷The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge;

But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸My son, hear the instruction of thy father,

And forsake not the law of thy mother:

⁹For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head,

And chains about thy neck.

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice thee,

Consent thou not.

¹¹If they say, Come with us,

Let us lay wait for blood;

Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;

¹²Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,

And whole, as those that go down into the pit;

¹³We shall find all precious substance;

We shall fill our houses with spoil;

¹⁴Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;

We will all have one purse:

¹⁵My son, walk not thou in the way with them;

Refrain thy foot from their path:

¹⁶For their feet run to evil,

And they make haste to shed blood.

¹⁷For in vain is the net spread

In the sight of any bird:

¹⁸And these lay wait for their own blood;

They lurk privily for their own lives.

¹⁹So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;

It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

²⁰Wisdom crieth aloud in the street;

She uttereth her voice in the broad places;

²¹She crieth in the chief place of concourse;

At the entrance of the gates,

In the city, she uttereth her words:

²²How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?

And scoffers delight them in scoffing,

And fools hate knowledge?

²³Turn you at my reproof:

Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you;

I will make known my words unto you.

²⁴Because I have called, and ye have refused;

I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;

²⁵But ye have set at nought all my counsel,

And would none of my reproof:

²⁶I also will laugh in the day of your calamity;

I will mock when your fear cometh;

²⁷When your fear cometh as a storm,

And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind;

When distress and anguish come upon you.

²⁸Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:

²⁹For that they hated knowledge,

And did not choose the fear of Jehovah,

³⁰They would none of my counsel,

They despised all my reproof.

³¹Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,

And be filled with their own devices.

³²For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them,

And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.

³³But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely,

And shall be quiet without fear of evil.