| 1 | Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: |
| 2 | to know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding; |
| 3 | to receive the instruction of wisdom, righteousness and judgment, and equity; |
| 4 | to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. |
| 5 | He that is wise will hear, and will increase learning; and the intelligent will gain wise counsels: |
| 6 | to understand a proverb and an allegory, the words of the wise and their enigmas. |
| 7 | The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge: fools despise wisdom and instruction. |
| 8 | Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother; |
| 9 | for they shall be a garland of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. |
| 10 | My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not. |
| 11 | If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk secretly 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 | cast in thy lot among us; we will all have one purse: |
| 15 | -- my son, walk not in the way with them, keep back thy foot from their path; |
| 16 | for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. |
| 17 | For in vain the net is spread in the sight of anything which hath wings. |
| 18 | And these lay wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives. |
| 19 | So are the paths of every one that is greedy of gain: it taketh away the life of its possessors. |
| 20 | Wisdom crieth without; she raiseth her voice in the broadways; |
| 21 | she calleth in the chief [place] of concourse, in the entry of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words: |
| 22 | How long, simple ones, will ye love simpleness, and scorners take pleasure in their scorning, and the foolish hate knowledge? |
| 23 | Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour forth my spirit unto you, I will make known to you my words. |
| 24 | Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one regarded; |
| 25 | and ye have rejected all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: |
| 26 | I also will laugh in your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; |
| 27 | when your fear cometh as sudden destruction, and your calamity cometh 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 early, and shall not find me. |
| 29 | Because 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 way, and be filled with their own devices. |
| 32 | For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of the foolish shall cause them to perish. |
| 33 | But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be at rest from fear of evil. |