Mishlĕ (Proverbs) 1

¹The proverbs of Shelomoh son of Dawiḏ, sovereign of Yisra’ĕl:

²For knowing wisdom and discipline, For understanding the words of understanding,

³For receiving the discipline of wisdom, Righteousness, right-ruling, and straightness;

⁴For giving insight to the simple, Knowledge and discretion to the young.

⁵The wise one hears and increases learning, And the understanding one gets wise counsel,

⁶For understanding a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles.

⁷The fear of יהוה is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and discipline.[#See Prov. 9:10; Psa. 111:10]

⁸My son, heed the discipline of your father, And do not forsake the Torah of your mother;

⁹For they are a fair wreath on your head, And chains about your neck.

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in.

¹¹If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause.

¹²“Let us swallow them alive like She’ol, And entirely, like those going down to the pit.

¹³“Let us find all precious goods, Let us fill our houses with spoil.

¹⁴“Cast in your lot among us, Let us all have one purse,”

¹⁵My son, do not walk in the way with them, Keep your foot from their path;

¹⁶For their feet run to evil, And they hurry to shed blood.

¹⁷For in vain the net is spread In the sight of any bird.

¹⁸But they lie in wait for their own blood, They ambush their own lives.

¹⁹Such are the ways of everyone greedy for gain; It takes away the life of its owners.

²⁰Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the broad places.

²¹At the head of the noisy streets she cries out, At the openings of the gates, In the city she speaks her words:

²²“How long, you simple ones, Would you love simplicity, And shall scoffers delight in their scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?

²³“Turn at my reproof. See, I pour out my spirit on you, I make my words known to you.

²⁴“Because I called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one inclined,

²⁵“And you spurned all my counsel, And would not yield to my reproof,

²⁶“Let me also laugh at your calamity, Mock when your dread comes,

²⁷“When your dread comes like a storm, And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you.

²⁸“Let them then call on me, but I answer not; Let them seek me, but not find me.

²⁹“Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of יהוה,

³⁰“They did not accept my counsel, They despised all my reproof,

³¹“Therefore let them eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own counsels.

³²“For the turning away of the simple kills them, And the complacency of fools destroys them.

³³“But whoever listens to me dwells safely, And is at ease from the dread of evil.”