1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.
2To know wisdom and instruction;
3To receive the instruction of wisdom,
4To give subtilty to the simple,
5A wise man will hear, and will increase learning;
6To understand a proverb, and the interpretation;
7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge:
8My son, hear the instruction of thy father,
9For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head,
10My son, if sinners entice thee,
11If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood,
12Let us swallow them up alive as the grave;
13We shall find all precious substance,
14Cast in thy lot among us;
15My son, walk not thou in the way with them;
16For their feet run to evil,
17Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
18And they lay wait for their own blood;
19So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
20Wisdom crieth without;
21She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates:
22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
23Turn you at my reproof:
24Because I have called, and ye refused;
25But ye have set at nought all my counsel,
26I also will laugh at your calamity;
27When your fear cometh as desolation,
28Then shall 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 turning away of the simple shall slay them,
33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely,