|
Chapter 1 |
| 1 | The proverbs
of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; |
|
2 | To know wisdom and
instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; |
| 3 | To receive the
instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; |
| 4 | To give
subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. |
| 5 | A
wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding
shall attain unto wise counsels: |
| 6 | To understand a proverb, and
the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. |
| 7 |
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom
and instruction. |
|
8 | My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and
forsake not the law of thy mother: |
| 9 | For they shall be an ornament
of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. |
| 10 | My son, if
sinners entice thee, consent thou not. |
| 11 | If they say, Come with us,
let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without
cause: |
| 12
| Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as
those that go down into the pit: |
| 13 | We shall find all precious
substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: |
| 14 | Cast in thy
lot among us; let us all have one purse: |
|
15 | My son, walk not thou in
the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: |
| 16 | For their
feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. |
| 17 | Surely in
vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. |
| 18 | And they lay
wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. |
| 19 |
So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life
of the owners thereof. |
| 20 | Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her
voice in the streets: |
| 21 | She crieth in the chief place of concourse,
in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
|
| 22 | How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners
delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? |
| 23 | Turn you at
my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my
words unto you. |
|
24 | Because I have called, and ye refused; I have
stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; |
|
25 | But ye have set at
nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: |
| 26 | I also will
laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; |
| 27 | When
your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;
when distress and anguish cometh upon you. |
|
28 | Then shall they call
upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not
find me: |
| 29
| For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the
fear of the LORD: |
| 30 | They would none of my counsel: they despised
all my reproof. |
|
31 | Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own
way, and be filled with their own devices. |
|
32 | For the turning away of
the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy
them. |
| 33 |
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be
quiet from fear of evil. |
