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,
4To give prudence to the simple,
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,
7The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; [But] the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
8My son, hear the instruction of thy father,
9For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head,
10My son, if sinners entice thee,
11If they say, Come with us,
12Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,
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,
17For in vain is the net spread
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,
22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
23Turn you at my reproof:
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,
26I also will laugh in [the day of] your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
27When your fear cometh as a storm,
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,
30They would none of my counsel; They despised all my reproof.
31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
32For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them,
33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely,