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 discipline, reverence, righteousness, and justice, and equity;

4 To give subtlety to the simple, to the young men knowledge and discretion.

5 A wise man will listen and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain to leadership;

6 To understand proverbs and figures of speech; the words of the wise and their dark sayings.

7 The reverence of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise knowledge and instruction.

8 Hear, my son, the ordinance of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother;

9 For they shall be an ornament of grace for your head and a necklace about your neck.

10 My son, if sinners entice you, consent not.

11 If they say to you, Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood, let us lie in wait for the innocent, wrongfully;

12 Let us swallow them up alive, as Sheol swallows the living, and whole as those who go down into the pit;

13 We shall find all his wealth and precious things, we shall fill our houses with spoil;

14 Cast in your lot with us; let us all have one purse;

15 My son, do not walk in the way with them; but refrain your foot from their path;

16 For their feet run to evil, they make haste to shed blood.

17 Surely in deceit is the net spread in the sight of any bird.

18 And they lie in wait, they hide themselves to shed blood.

19 Such are the ways of all who practice iniquity, who take away the life of their owners.

20 Wisdom is glorified in the market places; she raises her voice in the streets:

21 She preaches in the chief places of the concourse; in the openings of the gates of the city, she utters her words, saying,

22 How long, you simple ones, will you love childishness? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

23 If you will turn to my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words to you.

24 For I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and you did not listen:

25 But you have despised all my counsels, and you were not pleased with my reproof.

26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will rejoice when terror and sudden destruction come upon you;

27 When your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you,

28 Then they shall call upon me, but I will not answer them; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me;

29 Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the worship of the LORD.

30 They were not pleased with my counsels; they rejected all of my reproof.

31 Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices.

32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the error of the weak-minded men shall destroy them.

33 But he who listens to me shall live in hope, and shall refrain from many evils.