Home Master Index
←Prev   Proverbs 1 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


1:1  The Proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
1:2  To learn wisdom and moral instruction, and to discern wise counsel.
1:3  To receive moral instruction in skillful living, in righteousness, justice, and equity.
1:4  To impart shrewdness to the morally naive, and a discerning plan to the young person.
1:5  (Let the wise also hear and gain instruction, and let the discerning acquire guidance!)
1:6  To discern the meaning of a proverb and a parable, the sayings of the wise and their riddles.
1:7  Fearing the LORD is the beginning of moral knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
1:8  Listen, my child, to the instruction from your father, and do not forsake the teaching from your mother.
1:9  For they will be like an elegant garland on your head, and like pendants around your neck.
1:10  My child, if sinners try to entice you, do not consent!
1:11  If they say, "Come with us! We will lie in wait to shed blood; we will ambush an innocent person capriciously.
1:12  We will swallow them alive like Sheol, those full of vigor like those going down to the Pit.
1:13  We will seize all kinds of precious wealth; we will fill our houses with plunder.
1:14  Join with us! We will all share equally in what we steal."
1:15  My child, do not go down their way, withhold yourself from their path;
1:16  for they are eager to inflict harm, and they hasten to shed blood.
1:17  Surely it is futile to spread a net in plain sight of any bird,
1:18  but these men lie in wait for their own blood, they ambush their own lives!
1:19  Such are the ways of all who gain profit unjustly; it takes away the life of those who obtain it!
1:20  Wisdom calls out in the street, she shouts loudly in the plazas;
1:21  at the head of the noisy streets she calls, in the entrances of the gates in the city she utters her words:
1:22  "How long will you simpletons love naivet�? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?
1:23  If only you will respond to my rebuke, then I will pour out my thoughts to you and I will make my words known to you.
1:24  However, because I called but you refused to listen, because I stretched out my hand but no one paid attention,
1:25  because you neglected all my advice, and did not comply with my rebuke,
1:26  so I myself will laugh when disaster strikes you, I will mock when what you dread comes,
1:27  when what you dread comes like a whirlwind, and disaster strikes you like a devastating storm, when distressing trouble comes on you.
1:28  Then they will call to me, but I will not answer; they will diligently seek me, but they will not find me.
1:29  Because they hated moral knowledge, and did not choose to fear the LORD,
1:30  they did not comply with my advice, they spurned all my rebuke.
1:31  Therefore they will eat from the fruit of their way, and they will be stuffed full of their own counsel.
1:32  For the waywardness of the simpletons will kill them, and the careless ease of fools will destroy them.
1:33  But the one who listens to me will live in security, and will be at ease from the dread of harm.