The Beginning of Knowledge

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

2To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;

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

5A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

6To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their riddles.

7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Shun Evil Companions

8My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother:

9For they shall be an ornament of grace unto your head, and chains about your neck.

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

11If they say, Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause:

12Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

13We shall find all kinds of precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

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

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

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

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

18And they lie in wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives.

19So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain; which takes away the life of its owners.

Wisdom Calls

20Wisdom cries aloud outside; she raises her voice in the open square:

21She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she utters her words, saying,

22How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scoffers delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?

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

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

25But you have ignored all my counsel, and would have none of my reproof:

26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;

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

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

29Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

30They would have 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 turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

33But whosoever hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be secure from the fear of evil.