Proverbs 1:17-32

¹⁷for nets are not without cause spread for birds.

¹⁸For they that are concerned in murder store up evils for themselves; and the overthrow of transgressors is evil.

¹⁹These are the ways of all that perform lawless deeds; for by ungodliness they destroy their own life.

²⁰Wisdom sings aloud in passages, and in the broad places speaks boldly.

²¹And she makes proclamation on the top of the walls, and sits by the gates of princes; and at the gates of the city boldly says,

²²So long as the simple cleave to justice, they shall not be ashamed: but the foolish being lovers of haughtiness, having become ungodly have hated knowledge, and are become subject to reproofs.

²³Behold, I will bring forth to you the utterance of my breath, and I will instruct you in my speech.

²⁴Since I called, and ye did not hearken; and I spoke at length, and ye gave no heed;

²⁵but ye set at nought my counsels, and disregarded my reproofs;

²⁶therefore I also will laugh at your destruction; and I will rejoice against you when ruin comes upon you:

²⁷yea when dismay suddenly comes upon you, and your overthrow shall arrive like a tempest; and when tribulation and distress shall come upon you, or when ruin shall come upon you.

²⁸For it shall be that when ye call upon me, I will not hearken to you: wicked men shall seek me, but shall not find me.

²⁹For they hated wisdom, and did not choose the word of the Lord:

³⁰neither would they attend to my counsels, but derided my reproofs.

³¹Therefore shall they eat the fruits of their own way, and shall be filled with their own ungodliness.

³²For because they wronged the simple, they shall be slain; and an inquisition shall ruin the ungodly.