Skip to content- 1Verse 1. These are the proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel,
- 2Verse 2. for gaining wisdom and discipline, for comprehending words of insight,
- 3Verse 3. and for receiving instruction in wise living and in righteousness, justice, and equity.
- 4Verse 4. To impart prudence to the simple and knowledge and discretion to the young,
- 5Verse 5. let the wise listen and gain instruction, and the discerning acquire wise counsel
- 6Verse 6. by understanding the proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.
- 7Verse 7. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
- 8Verse 8. Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.
- 9Verse 9. For they are a garland of grace on your head and a pendant around your neck.
- 10Verse 10. My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them.
- 11Verse 11. If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,
- 12Verse 12. let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.
- 13Verse 13. We will find all manner of precious goods; we will fill our houses with plunder.
- 14Verse 14. Throw in your lot with us; let us all share one purse”—
- 15Verse 15. my son, do not walk the road with them or set foot upon their path.
- 16Verse 16. For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.
- 17Verse 17. How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it!
- 18Verse 18. But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.
- 19Verse 19. Such is the fate of all who are greedy, whose unjust gain takes the lives of its possessors.
- 20Verse 20. Wisdom calls out in the street, she lifts her voice in the square;
- 21Verse 21. in the main concourse she cries aloud, at the city gates she makes her speech:
- 22Verse 22. “How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- 23Verse 23. If you had repented at my rebuke, then surely I would have poured out my spirit on you; I would have made my words known to you.
- 24Verse 24. Because you refused my call, and no one took my outstretched hand,
- 25Verse 25. because you neglected all my counsel, and wanted none of my correction,
- 26Verse 26. in turn I will mock your calamity; I will sneer when terror strikes you,
- 27Verse 27. when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.
- 28Verse 28. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.
- 29Verse 29. For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.
- 30Verse 30. They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof.
- 31Verse 31. So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- 32Verse 32. For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.
- 33Verse 33. But whoever listens to me will dwell in safety, secure from the fear of evil.”