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 dwell safely,
and quiet from fear of evil.