1:2To know wisdom and instruction;
To discern the words of understanding;
1:3To receive instruction in wise dealing,
In righteousness and justice and equity;
1:4To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion:
1:5That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning;
And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:
1:6To understand a proverb, and a figure,
The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
1:7The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge;
But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
1:8My son, hear the instruction of thy father,
And forsake not the law of thy mother:
1:9For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head,
And chains about thy neck.
1:10My son, if sinners entice thee,
Consent thou not.
1:11If they say, Come with us,
Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;
1:12Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,
And whole, as those that go down into the pit;
1:13We shall find all precious substance;
We shall fill our houses with spoil;
1:14Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;
We will all have one purse:
1:15My son, walk not thou in the way with them;
Refrain thy foot from their path:
1:16For their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed blood.
1:17For in vain is the net spread
In the sight of any bird:
1:18And these lay wait for their own blood;
They lurk privily for their own lives.
1:19So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
1:20Wisdom crieth aloud in the street;
She uttereth her voice in the broad places;
1:21She crieth in the chief place of concourse;
At the entrance of the gates,
In the city, she uttereth her words:
1:22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
And scoffers delight them in scoffing,
1:23Turn you at my reproof:
Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you;
I will make known my words unto you.
1:24Because I have called, and ye have refused;
I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;
1:25But ye have set at nought all my counsel,
And would none of my reproof:
1:26I also will laugh in the day of your calamity;
I will mock when your fear cometh;
1:27When your fear cometh as a storm,
And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind;
When distress and anguish come upon you.
1:28Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:
1:29For that they hated knowledge,
And did not choose the fear of Jehovah:
1:30They would none of my counsel;
They despised all my reproof.
1:31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
And be filled with their own devices.
1:32For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them,
And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.
1:33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely,
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