Chapter 1

  The parables of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.  

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  To know wisdom, and instruction:  

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  To understand the words of prudence: and to receive the instruction of doctrine, justice, and judgment, and equity:  

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  To give subtilty to little ones, to the young man knowledge and understanding.  

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  A wise man shall hear and shall be wiser: and he that understandeth, shall possess governments.  

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  He shall understand a parable, and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their mysterious sayings.  

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  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.  

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

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  That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck.  

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  My son, if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them.  

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  If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent without cause:  

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  Let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole as one that goeth down into the pit.  

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  We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoils.  

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  Cast in thy lot with us, let us all have one purse.  

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  My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths.  

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

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  But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of them that have wings.  

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  And they themselves lie in wait for their own blood, and practise deceits against their own souls.  

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  So the wage of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors.  

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  Wisdom preacheth abroad, she uttereth her voice in the streets:  

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  At the head of multitudes she crieth out, in the entrance of the gates of the city she uttereth her words, saying:  

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  O children, how long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge?  

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  Turn ye at my reproof: behold I will utter my spirit to you, and will shew you my words.  

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  Because I called, and you refused: I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded.  

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  You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions.  

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  I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.  

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  When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you:  

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  Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning and shall not find me:  

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  Because they have hated instruction and received not the fear of the Lord,  

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  Nor consented to my counsel, but despised all my reproof.  

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

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  The turning away of little ones shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.  

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  But he that shall hear me, shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils.  

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