Proverbs 1:1-29

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

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

³to receive the instruction of wisdom, righteousness and judgment, and equity;

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

⁵He that is wise will hear, and will increase learning; and the intelligent will gain wise counsels:

⁶to understand a proverb and an allegory, the words of the wise and their enigmas.

⁷The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge: fools despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;

⁹for they shall be a garland of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not.

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

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

¹³we shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

¹⁴cast 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;

¹⁶for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

¹⁷For in vain the net is spread in the sight of anything which hath wings.

¹⁸And these lay wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives.

¹⁹So are the paths of every one that is greedy of gain: it taketh away the life of its possessors.

²⁰Wisdom crieth without; she raiseth her voice in the broadways;

²¹she calleth in the chief place of concourse, in the entry of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words:

²²How long, simple ones, will ye love simpleness, and scorners take pleasure in their scorning, and the foolish hate knowledge?

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

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

²⁵and ye have rejected all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

²⁶I also will laugh in your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh;

²⁷when 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.

²⁹Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of Jehovah;