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¹ The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:² To know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding;³ To receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness and judgment and equity;⁴ To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion:⁵ That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; and that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:⁶ To understand a proverb, and a figure; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

⁷ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.⁸ My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:⁹ For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.¹¹ If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;¹² Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, and whole, as those that go down into the pit;¹³ We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil;¹⁴ Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; we will all have one purse:¹⁵ My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:¹⁶ For their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.¹⁷ For in vain is the net spread, in the eyes of any bird:¹⁸ And these lay wait for their own blood, they lurk privily for their own lives.¹⁹ So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; it taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

²⁰ Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; she uttereth her voice in the broad places;²¹ She crieth in the chief place of concourse; at the entering in of the gates, in the city, she uttereth her words:²² How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and scorners delight them in scorning, and fools hate knowledge?²³ Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.²⁴ Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;²⁵ But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:²⁶ I also will laugh in the day of your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;²⁷ When your fear cometh as a storm, and your calamity cometh on 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 diligently, but they shall not find me:²⁹ For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:³⁰ They would 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 devices.³² For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.³³ But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, and shall be quiet without fear of evil.