Chapter 1

  Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:  

  to know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding;  

  to receive the instruction of wisdom, righteousness and judgment, and equity;  

  to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.  

  He that is wise will hear, and will increase learning; and the intelligent will gain wise counsels:  

  to understand a proverb and an allegory, the words of the wise and their enigmas.  

  The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge: fools despise wisdom and instruction.  

  Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;  

  for they shall be a garland of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.  

  My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not.  

  If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;  

  let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and whole, as those that go down into the pit;  

  we shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:  

  cast in thy lot among us; we will all have one purse:  

  -- my son, walk not in the way with them, keep back thy foot from their path;  

  for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.  

  For in vain the net is spread in the sight of anything which hath wings.  

  And these lay wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives.  

  So are the paths of every one that is greedy of gain: it taketh away the life of its possessors.  

  Wisdom crieth without; she raiseth her voice in the broadways;  

  she calleth in the chief [place] of concourse, in the entry of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words:  

  How long, simple ones, will ye love simpleness, and scorners take pleasure in their scorning, and the foolish hate knowledge?  

  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour forth my spirit unto you, I will make known to you my words.  

  Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one regarded;  

  and ye have rejected all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:  

  I also will laugh in your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh;  

  when your fear cometh as sudden destruction, and your calamity cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you:  

  -- then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me early, and shall not find me.  

  Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of Jehovah;  

  they would none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof:  

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

  For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of the foolish shall cause them to perish.  

  But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be at rest from fear of evil.