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