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 judgment and equity;

⁴ To give subtilty 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 the LORD 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 eyes 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 entering in of the gates, in the city, she uttereth her words:

²² How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and scorners delight them in scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

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

²⁴ Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man 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 shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:

²⁹ For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

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 prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

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