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