1:1 Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
1:2 For knowing wisdom and instruction, For understanding sayings of intelligence,
1:3 For receiving the instruction of wisdom, Righteousness, judgment, and uprightness,
1:4 For giving to simple ones -- prudence, To a youth -- knowledge and discretion.
1:5 (The wise doth hear and increaseth learning, And the intelligent doth obtain counsels.)
1:6 For understanding a proverb and its sweetness, Words of the wise and their acute sayings.
1:7 Fear of Jehovah `is' a beginning of knowledge, Wisdom and instruction fools have despised!
1:8 Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, And leave not the law of thy mother,
1:9 For a graceful wreath `are' they to thy head, And chains to thy neck.
1:10 My son, if sinners entice thee be not willing.
1:11 If they say, `Come with us, we lay wait for blood, We watch secretly for the innocent without cause,
1:12 We swallow them as Sheol -- alive, And whole -- as those going down `to' the pit,
1:13 Every precious substance we find, We fill our houses `with' spoil,
1:14 Thy lot thou dost cast among us, One purse is -- to all of us.'
1:15 My son! go not in the way with them, Withhold thy foot from their path,
1:16 For their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed blood.
1:17 Surely in vain is the net spread out before the eyes of any bird.
1:18 And they for their own blood lay wait, They watch secretly for their own lives.
1:19 So `are' the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, The life of its owners it taketh.
1:20 Wisdom in an out-place crieth aloud, In broad places she giveth forth her voice,
1:21 At the head of the multitudes she calleth, In the openings of the gates, In the city her sayings she saith:
1:22 `Till when, ye simple, do ye love simplicity? And have scorners their scorning desired? And do fools hate knowledge?
1:23 Turn back at my reproof, lo, I pour forth to you my spirit, I make known my words with you.
1:24 Because I have called, and ye refuse, I stretched out my hand, and none is attending,
1:25 And ye slight all my counsel, And my reproof ye have not desired.
1:26 I also in your calamity do laugh, I deride when your fear cometh,
1:27 When your fear cometh as destruction, And your calamity as a hurricane doth come, When on you come adversity and distress.
1:28 Then they call me, and I do not answer, They seek me earnestly, and find me not.
1:29 Because that they have hated knowledge, And the fear of Jehovah have not chosen.
1:30 They have not consented to my counsel, They have despised all my reproof,
1:31 And they eat of the fruit of their way, And from their own counsels they are filled.
1:32 For the turning of the simple slayeth them, And the security of the foolish destroyeth them.
1:33 And whoso is hearkening to me dwelleth confidently, And `is' quiet from fear of evil!'