Proverbs 1

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

² To know wisdom and instruction; To discern the words of understanding;

³ To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness and justice and equity;

⁴ To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion:

⁵ That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:

⁶ To understand a proverb, and a figure, The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

⁷ The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸ My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother:

⁹ For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, And chains about thy neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice thee, Consent thou not.

¹¹ If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;

¹² Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit;

¹³ We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil;

¹⁴ Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse:

¹⁵ My son, walk not thou in the way with them; Refrain thy foot from their path:

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

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

¹⁸ And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own lives.

¹⁹ So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

²⁰ Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places;

²¹ She crieth in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she uttereth her words:

²² How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?

²³ Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words unto you.

²⁴ Because I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;

²⁵ But ye have set at nought all my counsel, And would none of my reproof:

²⁶ I also will laugh in the day of your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

²⁷ When your fear cometh as a storm, And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come upon you.

²⁸ Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:

²⁹ For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Jehovah,

³⁰ They would none of my counsel, They despised all my reproof.

³¹ Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own devices.

³² For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.

³³ But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil.