New Living Translation

King James Bible

1These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel.

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

2Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise.

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

3Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair.

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

4These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young.

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

5Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance

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

6by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles.

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

7Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. A Father’s Exhortation: Acquire Wisdom

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

8My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.

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

9What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck.

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

10My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them!

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

11They may say, “Come and join us. Let’s hide and kill someone! Just for fun, let’s ambush the innocent!

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

12Let’s swallow them alive, like the grave ; let’s swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death.

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

13Think of the great things we’ll get! We’ll fill our houses with all the stuff we take.

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

14Come, throw in your lot with us; we’ll all share the loot.”

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

15My child, don’t go along with them! Stay far away from their paths.

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

16They rush to commit evil deeds. They hurry to commit murder.

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

17If a bird sees a trap being set, it knows to stay away.

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

18But these people set an ambush for themselves; they are trying to get themselves killed.

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

19Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of life. Wisdom Shouts in the Streets

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

20Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square.

20Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

21She calls to the crowds along the main street, to those gathered in front of the city gate:

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

22“How long, you simpletons, will you insist on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will you fools hate knowledge?

22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

23Come and listen to my counsel. I’ll share my heart with you and make you wise.

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

24“I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.

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

25You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered.

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

26So I will laugh when you are in trouble! I will mock you when disaster overtakes you—

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

27when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster engulfs you like a cyclone, and anguish and distress overwhelm you.

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

28“When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me.

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

29For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.

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

30They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them.

30They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

31Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes.

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

32For simpletons turn away from me—to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.

32For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

33But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.”

33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com.