Chapter 1
1The proverbs of Solomon David the son of David, king of Israel;
2To learn wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
4To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
5A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsels:
6To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7The fear of AO is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother:
9For they shall be an ornament of grace to your head, and chains about your neck.
10My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
11If they say, “Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
12Let’s swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
13We will take all sorts of precious wealth, we will fill our houses with plunder:
14Join with us; we will share what we steal equally!”
15My son, walk not in the way with them; refrain your foot from their path:
16For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
17Surely in vain a net is spread in the sight of any bird.
18These men lie in wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
19So are the ways of every one who is greedy of unjustly gain; it takes away the life of those who obtain it.
20Wisdom cries without; she utters her voice in the streets:
21She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she utters her words, saying,
22“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23Turn you at My reproof: behold, I will pour out My spirit upon you, I will make known My words to you.
24Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded;
25But you have neglected all My counsel, and would not accept My rebuke:
26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;
27When your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish comes upon you.
28Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me:
29Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear AO:
30They would not accept My counsel: they despised all My rebuke.
31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
32For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33But whoever hearkens to Me shall dwell safely and be at ease without fear of harm.”