The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; (1:1)

To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; (1:2)

To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; (1:3)

To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion (1:4)

A wise [man] will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: (1:5)

To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings (1:6)

The fear of the Lord [is] the beginning of knowledge: [but] fools despise wisdom and instruction (1:7)

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: (1:8)

For they [shall be] an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck (1:9)

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not (1:10)

If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: (1:11)

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: (1:12)

We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: (1:13)

Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: (1:14)

My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: (1:15)

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood (1:16)

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird (1:17)

And they lay wait for their [own] blood; they lurk privily for their [own] lives (1:18)

So [are] the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; [which] taketh away the life of the owners thereof (1:19)

Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: (1:20)

She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, [saying], (1:21)

How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? (1:22)

Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you (1:23)

Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; (1:24)

But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: (1:25)

I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; (1:26)

When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you (1:27)

Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: (1:28)

For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: (1:29)

They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof (1:30)

Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices (1:31)

For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them (1:32)

But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil (1:33)

Get Next Chapter