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¹ THE proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:² To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;³ To receive discipline, reverence, righteousness, and justice, and equity;⁴ To give subtlety to the simple, to the young men knowledge and discretion.⁵ A wise man will listen and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain to leadership;⁶ To understand proverbs and figures of speech; the words of the wise and their dark sayings.

⁷ The reverence of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise knowledge and instruction.⁸ Hear, my son, the ordinance of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother;⁹ For they shall be an ornament of grace for your head and a necklace about your neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you, consent not.¹¹ If they say to you, Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood, let us lie in wait for the innocent, wrongfully;¹² Let us swallow them up alive, as Sheol swallows the living, and whole as those who go down into the pit;¹³ We shall find all his wealth and precious things, we shall fill our houses with spoil;¹⁴ Cast in your lot with us; let us all have one purse;¹⁵ My son, do not walk in the way with them; but refrain your foot from their path;¹⁶ For their feet run to evil, they make haste to shed blood.¹⁷ Surely in deceit is the net spread in the sight of any bird.¹⁸ And they lie in wait, they hide themselves to shed blood.¹⁹ Such are the ways of all who practice iniquity, who take away the life of their owners.

²⁰ Wisdom is glorified in the market places; she raises her voice in the streets:²¹ She preaches in the chief places of the concourse; in the openings of the gates of the city, she utters her words, saying,²² How long, you simple ones, will you love childishness? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?²³ If you will turn to my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words to you.²⁴ For I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and you did not listen:²⁵ But you have despised all my counsels, and you were not pleased with my reproof.²⁶ I also will laugh at your calamity; I will rejoice when terror and sudden destruction come upon you;²⁷ When your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you,²⁸ Then they shall call upon me, but I will not answer them; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me;²⁹ Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the worship of the LORD.³⁰ They were not pleased with my counsels; they rejected all of my reproof.³¹ Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices.³² For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the error of the weak-minded men shall destroy them.³³ But he who listens to me shall live in hope, and shall refrain from many evils.