Skip to main content- 1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
- 2To know wisdom and instruction; To discern the words of understanding;
- 3To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness and justice and equity;
- 4To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion:
- 5That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:
- 6To understand a proverb, and a figure, The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
- 7The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; [But] the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
- 8My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother:
- 9For they shall be a chaplet 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 Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit;
- 13We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil;
- 14Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will 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 they make haste to shed blood.
- 17For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird:
- 18And these 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; It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
- 20Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places;
- 21She crieth in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she uttereth her words:
- 22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?
- 23Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words unto you.
- 24Because I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;
- 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, And would none of my reproof:
- 26I also will laugh in [the day of] your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
- 27When your fear cometh as a storm, And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come upon you.
- 28Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:
- 29For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Jehovah:
- 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 backsliding of the simple shall slay them, And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.
- 33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil.