Proverbs 1

²For learning about wisdom and instruction,

for understanding words of insight,

³for gaining instruction in wise dealing,

righteousness, justice, and equity;

⁴to teach shrewdness to the simple,

knowledge and prudence to the young—

⁵let the wise also hear and gain in learning,

and the discerning acquire skill,

⁶to understand a proverb and a figure,

the words of the wise and their riddles.

⁷The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,

and do not reject your mother’s teaching;

⁹for they are a fair garland for your head,

and pendants for your neck.

¹⁰My child, if sinners entice you,

do not consent.

¹¹If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;

let us wantonly ambush the innocent;

¹²like Sheol let us swallow them alive

and whole, like those who go down to the Pit.

¹³We shall find all kinds of costly things;

we shall fill our houses with booty.

¹⁴Throw in your lot among us;

we will all have one purse”—

¹⁵my child, do not walk in their way,

keep your foot from their paths;

¹⁶for their feet run to evil,

and they hurry to shed blood.

¹⁷For in vain is the net baited

while the bird is looking on;

¹⁸yet they lie in wait—to kill themselves!

and set an ambush—for their own lives!

¹⁹Such is the end of all who are greedy for gain;

it takes away the life of its possessors.

²⁰Wisdom cries out in the street;

in the squares she raises her voice.

²¹At the busiest corner she cries out;

at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

²²“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing

and fools hate knowledge?

²³Give heed to my reproof;

I will pour out my thoughts to you;

I will make my words known to you.

²⁴Because I have called and you refused,

have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,

²⁵and because you have ignored all my counsel

and would have none of my reproof,

²⁶I also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when panic strikes you,

²⁷when panic strikes you like a storm,

and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,

when distress and anguish come upon you.

²⁸Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;

they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.

²⁹Because they hated knowledge

and did not choose the fear of the Lord,

³⁰would have none of my counsel,

and despised all my reproof,

³¹therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way

and be sated with their own devices.

³²For waywardness kills the simple,

and the complacency of fools destroys them;

³³but those who listen to me will be secure

and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”