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.
