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¹ The parables of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel,² To know wisdom, and instruction:³ To understand the words of prudence: and to receive the instruction of doctrine, justice, and judgment, and equity:⁴ To give subtilty to little ones, to the young man knowledge and understanding.⁵ A wise man shall hear, and shall be wiser: and he that understandeth shall possess governments.⁶ He shall understand a parable and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their mysterious sayings.

⁷ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.⁸ My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:⁹ That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them.¹¹ If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent without cause:¹² Let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole as one that goeth down into the pit.¹³ We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoils.¹⁴ Cast in thy lot with us, let us all have one purse.¹⁵ My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths.¹⁶ For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.¹⁷ But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of them that have wings.¹⁸ And they themselves lie in wait for their own blood, and practise deceits against their own souls.¹⁹ So the ways of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors.

²⁰ Wisdom preacheth abroad, she uttereth her voice in the streets:²¹ At the head of multitudes she crieth out, in the entrance of the gates of the city she uttereth her words, saying:²² O children, how long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge?²³ Turn ye at my reproof: behold I will utter my spirit to you, and will shew you my words.²⁴ Because I called, and you refused: I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded.²⁵ You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions.²⁶ I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.²⁷ When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you:²⁸ Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning, and shall not find me:²⁹ Because they have hated instruction, and received not the fear of the Lord,³⁰ Nor consented to my counsel, but despised all my reproof.³¹ Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and shall be filled with their own devices.³² The turning away of little ones shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.³³ But he that shall hear me, shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils.