Chapter 1

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

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

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

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  For giving to simple ones -- prudence, To a youth -- knowledge and discretion.  

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  (The wise doth hear and increaseth learning, And the intelligent doth obtain counsels.)  

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

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  Fear of Jehovah [is] a beginning of knowledge, Wisdom and instruction fools have despised!  

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  Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, And leave not the law of thy mother,  

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  For a graceful wreath [are] they to thy head, And chains to thy neck.  

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  My son, if sinners entice thee be not willing.  

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

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

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  Every precious substance we find, We fill our houses [with] spoil,  

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  Thy lot thou dost cast among us, One purse is -- to all of us.'  

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  My son! go not in the way with them, Withhold thy foot from their path,  

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  For their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed blood.  

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

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

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  So [are] the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, The life of its owners it taketh.  

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  Wisdom in an out-place crieth aloud, In broad places she giveth forth her voice,  

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  At the head of the multitudes she calleth, In the openings of the gates, In the city her sayings she saith:  

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  'Till when, ye simple, do ye love simplicity? And have scorners their scorning desired? And do fools hate knowledge?  

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

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  Because I have called, and ye refuse, I stretched out my hand, and none is attending,  

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  And ye slight all my counsel, And my reproof ye have not desired.  

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  I also in your calamity do laugh, I deride when your fear cometh,  

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  When your fear cometh as destruction, And your calamity as a hurricane doth come, When on you come adversity and distress.  

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  Then they call me, and I do not answer, They seek me earnestly, and find me not.  

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  Because that they have hated knowledge, And the fear of Jehovah have not chosen.  

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  They have not consented to my counsel, They have despised all my reproof,  

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  And they eat of the fruit of their way, And from their own counsels they are filled.  

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  For the turning of the simple slayeth them, And the security of the foolish destroyeth them.  

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  And whoso is hearkening to me dwelleth confidently, And [is] quiet from fear of evil!'  

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