Chapter 1

  Proverbs of Solomon, 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 the instruction of wisdom, righteousness and judgment, and equity;  

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  to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.  

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  He that is wise will hear, and will increase learning; and the intelligent will gain wise counsels:  

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  to understand a proverb and an allegory, the words of the wise and their enigmas.  

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  The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge: fools despise wisdom and instruction.  

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  Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;  

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  for they shall be a garland of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.  

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  My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not.  

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  If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk secretly 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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  cast in thy lot among us; we will all have one purse:  

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  -- my son, walk not in the way with them, keep back 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 the net is spread in the sight of anything which hath wings.  

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  And these lay wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives.  

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  So are the paths of every one that is greedy of gain: it taketh away the life of its possessors.  

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  Wisdom crieth without; she raiseth her voice in the broadways;  

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  she calleth in the chief [place] of concourse, in the entry of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words:  

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  How long, simple ones, will ye love simpleness, and scorners take pleasure in their scorning, and the foolish hate knowledge?  

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  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour forth my spirit unto you, I will make known to you my words.  

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

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  and ye have rejected all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:  

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  I also will laugh in your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh;  

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  when your fear cometh as sudden destruction, and your calamity cometh 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 early, and shall not find me.  

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  Because 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 way, and be filled with their own devices.  

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  For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of the foolish shall cause them to perish.  

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  But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be at rest from fear of evil.  

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