Provérbios 1

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.