Chapter 1

  The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:  

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  To know wisdom and instruction; To discern the words of understanding;  

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  To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness and justice and equity;  

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  To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion:  

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  That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:  

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  To understand a proverb, and a figure, The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.  

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  The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; [But] the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.  

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  My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother:  

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  For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, And chains about thy neck.  

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  My son, if sinners entice thee, Consent thou not.  

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  If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;  

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  Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit;  

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  We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil;  

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  Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse:  

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  My son, walk not thou in the way with them; Refrain thy foot from their path:  

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  For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood.  

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  For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird:  

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  And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own lives.  

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  So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.  

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  Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places;  

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  She crieth in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she uttereth her words:  

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  How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?  

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  Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words unto you.  

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  Because I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;  

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  But ye have set at nought all my counsel, And would none of my reproof:  

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  I also will laugh in [the day of] your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;  

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  When your fear cometh as a storm, And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come upon you.  

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  Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:  

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  For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Jehovah:  

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  They would none of my counsel; They despised all my reproof.  

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  Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own devices.  

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  For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.  

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  But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil.  

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