The Beginning of Knowledge

(Ezra 4:6-16; Esther 1:1-9; Proverbs 9:1-12)

1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

2To know wisdom and instruction; To discern the words of understanding;

3To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness and justice and equity;

4To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion:

5That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:

6To understand a proverb, and a figure, The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

7The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

The Enticement of Sin

8My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother:

9For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, And chains about thy neck.

10My son, if sinners entice thee, Consent thou not.

11If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;

12Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit;

13We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil;

14Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse:

15My son, walk not thou in the way with them; Refrain thy foot from their path:

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

17For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird:

18And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own lives.

19So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Wisdom Calls Aloud

20Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places;

21She crieth in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she uttereth her words:

22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?

23Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words unto you.

24Because I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;

25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, And would none of my reproof:

26I also will laugh in the day of your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

27When your fear cometh as a storm, And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come upon you.

28Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:

29For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Jehovah:

30They would none of my counsel; They despised all my reproof.

31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own devices.

32For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.

33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil.