The book begins with its purpose: to teach wisdom and discipline. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. A father urges his son not to join those who lure him into violence, and Wisdom cries out in the streets, warning those who ignore her.
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David , king of Israel ;
2 To know wisdom and instruction ; to perceive the words of understanding ;
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom , justice , and judgment , and equity ;
4 To give subtilty to the simple , to the young man knowledge and discretion .
5 A wise man will hear , and will increase learning ; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels :
6 To understand a proverb , and the interpretation ; the words of the wise , and their dark sayings .
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge : but fools despise wisdom and instruction .
8 My son , hear the instruction of thy father , and forsake not the law of thy mother :
9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head , and chains about thy neck .
10 My son , if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
11 If they say , Come with us, let us lay wait for blood , let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause :
12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave ; and whole , as those that go down into the pit :
13 We shall find all precious substance , we shall fill our houses with spoil :
14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse :
15 My son , walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path :
16 For their feet 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 wait for their own blood ; they lurk privily for their own lives .
19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain ; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
20 Wisdom crieth without ; she uttereth her voice in the streets :
21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse , in the openings of the gates : in the city she uttereth her words , saying,
22 How long, ye simple ones , will ye love simplicity ? and the scorners delight in their scorning , and fools hate knowledge ?
23 Turn you 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 man regarded ;
25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel , and would none of my reproof :
26 I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh ;
27 When your fear cometh as desolation , and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me early , but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge , and did not choose the fear of the LORD :
30 They would none of my counsel : they despised all my reproof .
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way , and be filled with their own devices .
32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely , and shall be quiet from fear of evil .