Proverbs

Chapter 1

PreviousNext

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;1 sermon⁴To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.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.⁷The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.4 sermons⁸My 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.¹⁰My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.2 sermons¹¹If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:1 sermon¹²Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:2 sermons¹³We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:2 sermons¹⁴Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:2 sermons¹⁵My 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.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: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?1 sermon²³Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.1 sermon²⁴Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;1 sermon²⁵But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:1 sermon²⁶I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;1 sermon²⁷When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.1 sermon²⁸Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:1 sermon²⁹For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:2 sermons³⁰They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.2 sermons³¹Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.2 sermons³²For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.2 sermons³³But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.1 sermon