WeBible

1 - Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

2 - For knowing wisdom and instruction, For understanding sayings of intelligence,

3 - For receiving the instruction of wisdom, Righteousness, judgment, and uprightness,

4 - For giving to simple ones--prudence, To a youth--knowledge and discretion.

5 - (The wise doth hear and increaseth learning, And the intelligent doth obtain counsels.)

6 - For understanding a proverb and its sweetness, Words of the wise and their acute sayings.

7 - Fear of Jehovah <FI>is<Fi> a beginning of knowledge, Wisdom and instruction fools have despised!

8 - Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, And leave not the law of thy mother,

9 - For a graceful wreath <FI>are<Fi> they to thy head, And chains to thy neck.

10 - My son, if sinners entice thee be not willing.

11 - If they say, `Come with us, we lay wait for blood, We watch secretly for the innocent without cause,

12 - We swallow them as Sheol--alive, And whole--as those going down <FI>to<Fi> the pit,

13 - Every precious substance we find, We fill our houses <FI>with<Fi> spoil,

14 - Thy lot thou dost cast among us, One purse is--to all of us.'

15 - My son! go not in the way with them, Withhold thy foot from their path,

16 - For their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed blood.

17 - Surely in vain is the net spread out before the eyes of any bird.

18 - And they for their own blood lay wait, They watch secretly for their own lives.

19 - So <FI>are<Fi> the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, The life of its owners it taketh.

20 - Wisdom in an out-place crieth aloud, In broad places she giveth forth her voice,

21 - At the head of the multitudes she calleth, In the openings of the gates, In the city her sayings she saith:

22 - `Till when, ye simple, do ye love simplicity? And have scorners their scorning desired? And do fools hate knowledge?

23 - Turn back at my reproof, lo, I pour forth to you my spirit, I make known my words with you.

24 - Because I have called, and ye refuse, I stretched out my hand, and none is attending,

25 - And ye slight all my counsel, And my reproof ye have not desired.

26 - I also in your calamity do laugh, I deride when your fear cometh,

27 - When your fear cometh as destruction, And your calamity as a hurricane doth come, When on you come adversity and distress.

28 - Then they call me, and I do not answer, They seek me earnestly, and find me not.

29 - Because that they have hated knowledge, And the fear of Jehovah have not chosen.

30 - They have not consented to my counsel, They have despised all my reproof,

31 - And they eat of the fruit of their way, And from their own counsels they are filled.

32 - For the turning of the simple slayeth them, And the security of the foolish destroyeth them.

33 - And whoso is hearkening to me dwelleth confidently, And <FI>is<Fi> quiet from fear of evil!'