Proverbs 1

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, <sup>12</sup> We swallow them as Sheol -- alive, And whole -- as those going down [to] the pit, <sup>13</sup> Every precious substance we find, We fill our houses [with] spoil, <sup>14</sup> Thy lot thou dost cast among us, One purse is -- to all of us.' <sup>15</sup> My son! go not in the way with them, Withhold thy foot from their path, <sup>16</sup> For their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed blood. <sup>17</sup> Surely in vain is the net spread out before the eyes of any bird. <sup>18</sup> And they for their own blood lay wait, They watch secretly for their own lives. <sup>19</sup> So [are] the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, The life of its owners it taketh. <sup>20</sup> Wisdom in an out-place crieth aloud, In broad places she giveth forth her voice, <sup>21</sup> At the head of the multitudes she calleth, In the openings of the gates, In the city her sayings she saith: <sup>22</sup> `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!'