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  For learning about wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight,
1:3  for gaining instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity;
1:4  to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young—
1:5  let the wise also hear and gain in learning, and the discerning acquire skill,
1:6  to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.
1:7  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
1:8  Hear, my child, your father’s instruction, and do not reject your mother’s teaching;
1:9  for they are a fair garland for your head, and pendants for your neck.
1:10  My child, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
1:11  If they say, ‘Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us wantonly ambush the innocent;
1:12  like Sheol let us swallow them alive and whole, like those who go down to the Pit.
1:13  We shall find all kinds of costly things; we shall fill our houses with booty.
1:14  Throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse’—
1:15  my child, do not walk in their way, keep your foot from their paths;
1:16  for their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed blood.
1:17  For in vain is the net baited while the bird is looking on;
1:18  yet they lie in wait—to kill themselves! and set an ambush—for their own lives!
1:19  Such is the end of all who are greedy for gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.
1:20  Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice.
1:21  At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
1:22  ‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
1:23  Give heed to my reproof; I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you.
1:24  Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,
1:25  and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof,
1:26  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you,
1:27  when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
1:28  Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.
1:29  Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
1:30  would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof,
1:31  therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices.
1:32  For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them;
1:33  but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.’