1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
2To know wisdom and instruction;
3To receive instruction in wise dealing,
4To give prudence to the simple,
5That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning;
6To understand a proverb, and a figure,
7The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge;
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;
14Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;
15My son, walk not thou in the way with them;
16For their feet run to evil,
17For in vain is the net spread
18And these lay wait for their own blood;
19So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
20Wisdom crieth aloud in the street;
21She crieth in the chief place of concourse;
22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
23Turn you at my reproof:
24Because I have called, and ye have refused;
25But ye have set at nought all my counsel,
26I also will laugh in the day of your calamity;
27When your fear cometh as a storm,
28Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer;
29For that they hated knowledge,
30They would none of my counsel,
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,