Proverbs 1

¹ TThe parables of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel,

² To know wisdom, and instruction:

³ To understand the words of prudence: and to receive the instruction of doctrine, justice, and judgment, and equity:

⁴ To give subtilty to little ones, to the young man knowledge and understanding.

⁵ A wise man shall hear, and shall be wiser: and he that understandeth shall possess governments.

⁶ He shall understand a parable and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their mysterious sayings.

⁷ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸ My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

⁹ That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them.

¹¹ If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent without cause:

¹² Let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole as one that goeth down into the pit.

¹³ We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoils.

¹⁴ Cast in thy lot with us, let us all have one purse.

¹⁵ My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths.

¹⁶ For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

¹⁷ But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of them that have wings.

¹⁸ And they themselves lie in wait for their own blood, and practise deceits against their own souls.

¹⁹ So the ways of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors.

²⁰ Wisdom preacheth abroad, she uttereth her voice in the streets:

²¹ At the head of multitudes she crieth out, in the entrance of the gates of the city she uttereth her words, saying:

²² O children, how long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge?

²³ Turn ye at my reproof: behold I will utter my spirit to you, and will shew you my words.

²⁴ Because I called, and you refused: I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded.

²⁵ You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions.

²⁶ I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.

²⁷ When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you:

²⁸ Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning, and shall not find me:

²⁹ Because they have hated instruction, and received not the fear of the Lord,

³⁰ Nor consented to my counsel, but despised all my reproof.

³¹ Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and shall be filled with their own devices.

³² The turning away of little ones shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

³³ But he that shall hear me, shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils.