Proverbs 1

1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;● 2To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;● 3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; {equity: Heb. equities}● 4To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. {discretion: or, advisement}● 5A wise {man} will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:● 6To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. {the interpretation: or, an eloquent speech}● 7The fear of the LORD {is} the beginning of knowledge: {but} fools despise wisdom and instruction. {the beginning: or, the principal part}● 8My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:● 9For they {shall be} an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. {an...: Heb. an adding}● 10My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.● 11If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:● 12Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:● 13We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:● 14Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:● 15My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:● 16For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.● 17Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. {in the...: Heb. in the eyes of every thing that hath a wing}● 18And they lay wait for their {own} blood; they lurk privily for their {own} lives.● 19So {are} the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; {which} taketh away the life of the owners thereof.● 20Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: {Wisdom: Heb. Wisdoms, that is, Excellent wisdom}● 21She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, {saying},● 22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?● 23Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.● 24Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;● 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:● 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;● 27When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.● 28Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:● 29For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:● 30They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.● 31Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.● 32For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. {turning...: or, ease of the simple}● 33But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.●