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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, righteousness and judgment, and equity;

⁴ to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

⁵ He that is wise will hear, and will increase learning; and the intelligent will gain wise counsels:

⁶ to understand a proverb and an allegory, the words of the wise and their enigmas.

⁷ The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge: fools despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸ Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;

⁹ for they shall be a garland of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice thee, consent not.

¹¹ If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk secretly 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 cast in thy lot among us; we will all have one purse:

¹⁵ —my son, walk not in the way with them, keep back thy foot from their path;

¹⁶ for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.

¹⁷ For in vain the net is spread in the sight of anything which hath wings.

¹⁸ And these lay wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives.

¹⁹ So are the paths of every one that is greedy of gain: it taketh away the life of its possessors.

²⁰ Wisdom crieth without; she raiseth her voice in the broadways;

²¹ she calleth in the chief [place] of concourse, in the entry of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words:

²² How long, simple ones, will ye love simpleness, and scorners take pleasure in their scorning, and the foolish hate knowledge?

²³ Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour forth my spirit unto you, I will make known to you my words.

²⁴ Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one regarded;

²⁵ and ye have rejected all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

²⁶ I also will laugh in your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh;

²⁷ when your fear cometh as sudden destruction, and your calamity cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you:

²⁸ —then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me early, and shall not find me.

²⁹ Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of Jehovah;

³⁰ they would none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof:

³¹ therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their way, and be filled with their own devices.

³² For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of the foolish shall cause them to perish.

³³ But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be at rest from fear of evil.