Proverbs 1:1-23 ▼

1 Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

2 For knowing wisdom and instruction, || For understanding sayings of intelligence,

3 For receiving the instruction of wisdom, || Righteousness, judgment, and uprightness,

4 For giving to simple ones—prudence, || To a youth—knowledge and discretion.

5 (The wise hear and increase learning, || And the intelligent obtain counsels.)

6 For understanding a proverb and its sweetness, || Words of the wise and their acute sayings.

7 Fear of YHWH [is the] beginning of knowledge, || Fools have despised wisdom and instruction!

8 Hear, my son, the instruction of your father, || And do not leave the law of your mother,

9 For they [are] a graceful wreath to your head, || And chains to your neck.

10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not be willing.

11 If they say, “Come with us, we lay wait for blood, || We watch secretly for the innocent without cause,

12 We swallow them as Sheol—alive, || And whole—as those going down [to] the pit,

13 We find every precious substance, || We fill our houses [with] spoil,

14 You cast your lot among us, || One purse is—to all of us.”

15 My son! Do not go in the way with them, || Withhold your foot from their path,

16 For their feet run to evil, || And they hurry to shed blood.

17 Surely in vain is the net spread out before the eyes of any bird.

18 And they lay wait for their own blood, || They watch secretly for their own lives.

19 So [are] the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, || It takes the life of its owners.

20 Wisdom cries aloud in an out-place, || She gives forth her voice in broad places,

21 She calls at the head of the multitudes, || In the openings of the gates, || In the city she says her sayings:

22 “Until when, you simple, do you love simplicity? And have scorners desired their scorning? And do fools hate knowledge?

23 Turn back at my reproof, behold, || I pour forth my spirit to you, || I make known my words with you.