Proverbs 1

₂To know wisdom and instruction;

To perceive the words of understanding;

₃To receive the instruction of wisdom,

Justice, and judgment, and equity;

₄To give subtilty to the simple,

To the young man knowledge and discretion.

₅A wise man will hear, and will increase learning;

And a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

₆To understand a proverb, and the interpretation;

The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

₇The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge:

But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

₈My son, hear the instruction of thy father,

And forsake not the law of thy mother:

₉For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head,

And chains about thy neck.

₁₀My son, if sinners entice thee,

Consent thou not.

₁₁If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood,

Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

₁₂Let us swallow them up alive as the grave;

And whole, as those that go down into the pit:

₁₃We shall find all precious substance,

We shall fill our houses with spoil:

₁₄Cast in thy lot among us;

Let us all have one purse:

₁₅My son, walk not thou in the way with them;

Refrain thy foot from their path:

₁₆For their feet run to evil,

And make haste to shed blood.

₁₇Surely in vain the net is spread

In the sight of any bird.

₁₈And they lay wait for their own blood;

They lurk privily for their own lives.

₁₉So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;

Which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

₂₀Wisdom crieth without;

She uttereth her voice in the streets:

₂₁She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates:

In the city she uttereth her words, saying,

₂₂How long, ye simple ones, will ye 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 unto you,

I will make known my words unto you.

₂₄Because I have called, and ye refused;

I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

₂₅But ye have set at nought all my counsel,

And would none of my reproof:

₂₆I also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when your fear cometh;

₂₇When your fear cometh as desolation,

And your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;

When distress and anguish cometh upon you.

₂₈Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer;

They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

₂₉For that they hated knowledge,

And did not choose the fear of the LORD:

₃₀They would none of my counsel:

They despised all my reproof.

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 whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely,

And shall be quiet from fear of evil.