| 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!' |