The Purpose of the Proverbs
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 the instruction of wisdom, righteousness, and judgment, and equity;
4 To give depth to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain to wise counsels:
6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their deep sayings.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Obey Not to Walk with Sinners
8 My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother:
9 For they shall be an ornament of grace to your head, and necklaces around your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
11 If they say, Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us wait secretly for the innocent without cause:
12 Let us swallow them up alive like the grave; and whole, like those that go down into the pit:
13 We shall find all precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with plunder:
14 Cast in your lot among us; let us all have one purse:
15 My son, do not walk in the way with them; keep back your foot from their path:
16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
17 Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird.
18 And they lie in wait for their own blood; they wait secretly for their own lives.
19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy for gain; which takes away the life of the possessors thereof.
20 Wisdom cries out openly; she speaks forth her voice in the streets:
21 She cries in the chief public meeting place, in the entrances of the gates: in the city she speaks forth her words, saying,
22 How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn back at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit to you, I will make known my words to you.
24 Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man listened;
25 But you rejected all my counsel, and would have none of my reproof:
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;
27 When your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 They would have none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own purposes.
32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 But he who obeys my voice shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.