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


1:1  The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel:
1:2  That people may know wisdom and discipline, may understand intelligent sayings;
1:3  May receive instruction in wise conduct, in what is right, just and fair;
1:4  That resourcefulness may be imparted to the naive, knowledge and discretion to the young.
1:5  The wise by hearing them will advance in learning, the intelligent will gain sound guidance,
1:6  To comprehend proverb and byword, the words of the wise and their riddles.
1:7  Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.
1:8  Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching;
1:9  A graceful diadem will they be for your head; a pendant for your neck.
1:10  My son, should sinners entice you,
1:11  do not go if they say, “Come along with us! Let us lie in wait for blood, unprovoked, let us trap the innocent;
1:12  Let us swallow them alive, like Sheol, whole, like those who go down to the pit!
1:13  All kinds of precious wealth shall we gain, we shall fill our houses with booty;
1:14  Cast in your lot with us, we shall all have one purse!”
1:15  My son, do not walk in the way with them, hold back your foot from their path!
1:16  [For their feet run to evil, they hasten to shed blood.]
1:17  In vain a net is spread right under the eyes of any bird—
1:18  They lie in wait for their own blood, they set a trap for their own lives.
1:19  This is the way of everyone greedy for loot: it takes away their lives.
1:20  Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the open squares she raises her voice;
1:21  Down the crowded ways she calls out, at the city gates she utters her words:
1:22  “How long, you naive ones, will you love naivete,
1:23  How long will you turn away at my reproof? [The arrogant delight in their arrogance, and fools hate knowledge.] Lo! I will pour out to you my spirit, I will acquaint you with my words:
1:24  ‘Because I called and you refused, extended my hand and no one took notice;
1:25  Because you disdained all my counsel, and my reproof you ignored—
1:26  I, in my turn, will laugh at your doom; will mock when terror overtakes you;
1:27  When terror comes upon you like a storm, and your doom approaches like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish befall you.’
1:28  Then they will call me, but I will not answer; they will seek me, but will not find me,
1:29  Because they hated knowledge, and the fear of the Lord they did not choose.
1:30  They ignored my counsel, they spurned all my reproof;
1:31  Well, then, they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and with their own devices be glutted.
1:32  For the straying of the naive kills them, the smugness of fools destroys them.
1:33  But whoever obeys me dwells in security, in peace, without fear of harm.”