Read the Bible

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 justice and equity;⁴ To give prudence 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 to sound counsels:⁶ To understand a proverb, and a figure, The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

⁷ The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; [But] the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.⁸ My son, hear the instruction of your father, And don't forsake the law of your mother:⁹ For they shall be a chaplet of grace to your head, And chains about your neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent.¹¹ If they say, Come with us, Let us lay in 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 You shall cast your lot among us; We will all have one purse:¹⁵ My son, don't walk in the way with them; Refrain your foot from their path:¹⁷ For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird:¹⁸ And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk secretly for their own lives.¹⁹ So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It takes away the life of the owners thereof.

²⁰ Wisdom cries aloud in the street; She utters her voice in the broad places;²¹ She cries in the most noisy places; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she utters her words:²² How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?²³ Turn at my reproof: Look, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.²⁴ Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man has regarded;²⁵ But you have set at nothing all my counsel, And would have none of my reproof:²⁶ I also will laugh in [the day of] your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;²⁷ When your fear comes as a storm, And your calamity comes on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come on you.²⁸ Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:²⁹ For they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Yahweh:³⁰ They didn't want my counsel; They despised all my reproof.³¹ Therefore they shall 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 careless ease of fools shall destroy them.³³ But whoever harkens to me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil.