Proverbs 1:1-21 ▼

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

2 To know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding;

3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment, and uprightness;

4 To give craftiness to the simple, and to the youth, knowledge and meditation.

5 The wise one will hear and he will add learning: and he understanding, shall obtain guidance:

6 To understand a proverb, and an enigma: the words of the wise and their parables.

7 The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge: the foolish despised wisdom and instruction.

8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and thou shalt not reject the law of thy mother:

9 For they a garland of grace to thy head, and necklaces for thy throat.

10 My son, if they sinning shall entice thee, thou shalt not go in.

11 If they shall say, Go with us, we will lie in wait for blood, we will hide for the innocent gratuitously;

12 We will swallow them down living, as hades, and whole, as they going down to the pit:

13 We shall find precious riches, we will fill our houses with spoil:

14 Wilt thou cast thy lot in the midst of us; one purse shall be to all:

15 My son, thou shalt not go in the way with them; withhold thy foot from their beaten paths:

16 For their feet will run to evil, and they will hasten to pour out blood:

17 For gratuitously the net was spread in the eyes of all possessing a wing.

18 And they will lie in wait for their blood; they will hide for their souls.

19 So the ways of every one plundering plunder; he will take the soul of those possessing it.

20 Wisdom will cry without; in the broad places she will give her voice:

21 She will call in the head of sound, in the entrances of the gates: in the city she will say her words: