¹ The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel;

² to know wisdom and chastening; to understand prudent words;

³ to receive the chastening of prudence, justice, judgment, and equity;

⁴ to give prudence to the simple, and to the young men knowledge and council.

⁵ If the wise will hear [them], doctrine shall increase, and the man of understanding shall acquire wise counsel:

⁶ To understand [a] parable and [the] interpretation; the words of the wise and their enigmas.

⁷ The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge, [but] fools despise wisdom and chastening.

⁸ My son, hearken unto the chastening of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

⁹ For they [shall be] an increase of grace unto thy head and protection about thy neck.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice thee, do not consent.

¹¹ If they say, Come with us, let us lay [in] wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without cause.

¹² Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol and whole as those that go down into the pit;

¹³ We shall find all kinds of riches, we shall fill our houses with spoil.

¹⁴ Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

¹⁵ My son, do not walk in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

¹⁶ For their feet shall run to evil and make haste to shed blood.

¹⁷ Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

¹⁸ And they lay [in]wait for their [own] blood; they ambush their [own] souls.

¹⁹ So [are] the ways of every one that is greedy of gain [which] takes away the life of those who possess it.

²⁰ Wisdom cries without; she utters her voice in the streets:

²¹ She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the entrance to the gates of the city she utters her words, [saying,]

²² How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and the fools hate knowledge?

²³ Return at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

²⁴ Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one responded;

²⁵ [for because] ye have disregarded all my counsel and rejected my reproof:

²⁶ I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes upon [you];

²⁷ when what you have feared comes as destruction, and your calamity comes as a whirlwind; when tribulation and anguish come upon you.

²⁸ Then they shall call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

²⁹ Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

³⁰ They rejected my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

³¹ Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own counsel.

³² For the rest of the ignorant shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

³³ But whosoever hearkens unto me shall dwell safely and shall rest from [the] fear of evil.: