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.

The Cry of Wisdom

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.