Proverbs 1

¹ Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

² For knowing wisdom and instruction, For understanding sayings of intelligence,

³ For receiving the instruction of wisdom, Righteousness, judgment, and uprightness,

⁴ For giving to simple ones — prudence, To a youth — knowledge and discretion.

⁵ (The wise doth hear and increaseth learning, And the intelligent doth obtain counsels.)

⁶ For understanding a proverb and its sweetness, Words of the wise and their acute sayings.

⁷ Fear of Jehovah [is] a beginning of knowledge, Wisdom and instruction fools have despised!

⁸ Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, And leave not the law of thy mother,

⁹ For a graceful wreath [are] they to thy head, And chains to thy neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice thee be not willing.

¹¹ If they say, ‘Come with us, we lay wait for blood, We watch secretly for the innocent without cause,

¹² We swallow them as Sheol — alive, And whole — as those going down [to] the pit,

¹³ Every precious substance we find, We fill our houses [with] spoil,

¹⁴ Thy lot thou dost cast among us, One purse is — to all of us.’

¹⁵ My son! go not in the way with them, Withhold thy foot from their path,

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

¹⁷ Surely in vain is the net spread out before the eyes of any bird.

¹⁸ And they for their own blood lay wait, They watch secretly for their own lives.

¹⁹ So [are] the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, The life of its owners it taketh.

²⁰ Wisdom in an out-place crieth aloud, In broad places she giveth forth her voice,

²¹ At the head of the multitudes she calleth, In the openings of the gates, In the city her sayings she saith:

²² ‘Till when, ye simple, do ye love simplicity? And have scorners their scorning desired? And do fools hate knowledge?

²³ Turn back at my reproof, lo, I pour forth to you my spirit, I make known my words with you.

²⁴ Because I have called, and ye refuse, I stretched out my hand, and none is attending,

²⁵ And ye slight all my counsel, And my reproof ye have not desired.

²⁶ I also in your calamity do laugh, I deride when your fear cometh,

²⁷ When your fear cometh as destruction, And your calamity as a hurricane doth come, When on you come adversity and distress.

²⁸ Then they call me, and I do not answer, They seek me earnestly, and find me not.

²⁹ Because that they have hated knowledge, And the fear of Jehovah have not chosen.

³⁰ They have not consented to my counsel, They have despised all my reproof,

³¹ And they eat of the fruit of their way, And from their own counsels they are filled.

³² For the turning of the simple slayeth them, And the security of the foolish destroyeth them.

³³ And whoso is hearkening to me dwelleth confidently, And [is] quiet from fear of evil!’