WeBible

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.