Proverbs 1
1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel. 1
2To know wisdom and instruction; 1 To perceive the words of understanding; 1
3To receive the instruction of wisdom, 1 Justice, and judgment, and equity; 1
4To give subtilty to the simple, 1 To the young man knowledge and discretion. 1
5A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; 1 And a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: 1
6To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; 1 The words of the wise, and their dark sayings. 1
7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: 1 But fools despise wisdom and instruction. 1
8My son, hear the instruction of thy father, 1 And forsake not the law of thy mother: 1
9For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, 1 And chains about thy neck. 1
10My son, if sinners entice thee, 1 Consent thou not. 1
11If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, 1 Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: 1
12Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; 1 And whole, as those that go down into the pit: 1
13We shall find all precious substance, 1 We shall fill our houses with spoil: 1
14Cast in thy lot among us; 1 Let us all have one purse: 1
15My son, walk not thou in the way with them; 1 Refrain thy foot from their path: 1
16For their feet run to evil, 1 And make haste to shed blood. 1
17Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. 1
18And they lay wait for their own blood; 1 They lurk privily for their own lives. 1
19So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; 1 Which taketh away the life of the owners thereof. 1
20Wisdom crieth without; 1 She uttereth her voice in the streets: 1
21She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: 1 In the city she uttereth her words, saying, 1
22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? 1 And the scorners delight in their scorning, 1 And fools hate knowledge? 1
23Turn you at my reproof: 1 Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, 1 I will make known my words unto you. 1
24Because I have called, and ye refused; 1 I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 1
25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, 1 And would none of my reproof: 1
26I also will laugh at your calamity; 1 I will mock when your fear cometh; 1
27When your fear cometh as desolation, 1 And your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; 1 When distress and anguish cometh upon you: 1
28Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; 1 They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 1
29For that they hated knowledge, 1 And did not choose the fear of the Lord: 1
30They would none of my counsel: 1 They despised all my reproof. 1
31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, 1 And be filled with their own devices. 1
32For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, 1 And the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 1
33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, 1 And shall be quiet from fear of evil.