Proverbs 1:1-33
1 The proverbs+ of Solʹo·mon+ the son of David,+ the king of Israel,+
2 for one to know wisdom+ and discipline,+ to discern the sayings of understanding,+
3 to receive the discipline+ that gives insight,+ righteousness+ and judgment+ and uprightness,+
4 to give to the inexperienced ones shrewdness,+ to a young man knowledge+ and thinking ability.+
5 A wise person will listen and take in more instruction,+ and a man of understanding is the one who acquires skillful direction,+
6 to understand a proverb and a puzzling saying,+ the words of wise persons+ and their riddles.+
7 The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge.+ Wisdom and discipline are what mere fools have despised.+
8 Listen, my son, to the discipline of your father,+ and do not forsake the law of your mother.+
9 For they are a wreath of attractiveness to your head+ and a fine necklace to your throat.+
10 My son, if sinners try to seduce you, do not consent.+
11 If they keep saying: “Do go with us. Do let us lie in ambush for blood.+ Do let us lie in concealment for the innocent men without any cause.+
12 Let us swallow them down alive+ just like Sheʹol,*+ even whole, like those going down into a pit.+
13 Let us find all sorts of precious valuables.+ Let us fill our houses with spoil.+
14 Your lot you ought to cast in among us. Let there come to be just one bag belonging to all of us”+—
15 my son, do not go in the way with them.+ Hold back your foot from their roadway.+
16 For their feet are those that run to sheer badness,+ and they keep hastening to shed blood.+
17 For it is for nothing that the net is spread before the eyes of anything owning wings.+
18 Consequently they themselves lie in ambush for the very blood of these;+ they lie in concealment for their souls.*+
19 Thus are the paths of everyone making unjust profit.+ It takes away the very soul of its owners.+
20 True wisdom+ itself* keeps crying aloud in the very street.+ In the public squares it keeps giving forth its voice.+
21 At the upper end of the noisy streets* it calls out.+ At the entrances of the gates into the city it says its own sayings:+
22 “How long will YOU inexperienced ones keep loving inexperience,+ and [how long] must YOU ridiculers desire for yourselves outright ridicule,+ and [how long] will YOU stupid ones keep hating knowledge?+
23 Turn back at my reproof.+ Then to YOU I will cause my spirit to bubble forth;+ I will make my words known to YOU.+
24 Because I have called out but YOU keep refusing,+ I have stretched out my hand but there is no one paying attention,+
25 and YOU keep neglecting all my counsel,+ and my reproof YOU have not accepted,+
26 I also, for my part, shall laugh at YOUR own disaster,+ I shall mock when what YOU dread comes,+
27 when what YOU dread comes just like a storm, and YOUR own disaster gets here just like a storm wind,+ when distress and hard times come upon YOU.+
28 At that time they will keep calling me, but I shall not answer;+ they will keep looking for me, but they will not find me,+
29 for the reason that they hated knowledge,+ and the fear of Jehovah they did not choose.+
30 They did not consent to my counsel;+ they disrespected all my reproof.+
31 So they will eat from the fruitage of their way,+ and they will be glutted with their own counsels.+
32 For the renegading+ of the inexperienced ones is what will kill them,+ and the easygoingness of the stupid is what will destroy them.+
33 As for the one listening to me, he will reside in security+ and be undisturbed from dread of calamity.”+
Footnotes
^ “Just like Sheol.” Heb., kish·ʼohlʹ; Gr., haiʹdes; Syr., shiul; Lat., in·ferʹnus. See App 4B.
^ “For their souls (lives).” Heb., lenaph·sho·thamʹ, pl.; Lat., aʹni·mas. See App 4A.
^ Or, “herself,” referring to “wisdom,” fem.
^ “On top of the walls,” LXX and by a correction of M.
