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1:1  The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel:
1:2  To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding,
1:3  to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity;
1:4  to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion—
1:5  a wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
1:6  to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their riddles.
1:7  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
1:8  My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother;
1:9  for they will be a garland of grace on your head, and chains about your neck.
1:10  My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
1:11  If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;
1:12  let us swallow them up alive as the grave, and whole, as those who go down into the pit;
1:13  we will find all kinds of precious possessions; we will fill our houses with spoil;
1:14  cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse”—
1:15  my son, do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path;
1:16  for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood.
1:17  Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
1:18  They lie in wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives.
1:19  So are the ways of everyone who is greedy of gain, which takes away the life of its owners.
1:20  Wisdom cries out in the street; she utters her voice in the markets.
1:21  She cries at the corner of the streets, in the openings of the gates; she speaks her words in the city, saying:
1:22  “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.
1:23  Turn at my reproof; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.
1:24  Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded,
1:25  because you neglected all my counsel, and would have none of my reproof,
1:26  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes,
1:27  when your fear comes as desolation and your destruction comes as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
1:28  “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me early, but they will not find me.
1:29  Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
1:30  they would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof.
1:31  Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
1:32  For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the prosperity of fools will destroy them.
1:33  But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure from fear of evil.”