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 subtlety 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 shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
|