1: 2 To know wisdom and instruction; To discern the words of understanding;
1: 3 To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness and justice and equity;
1: 4 To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion:
1: 5 That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:
1: 6 To understand a proverb, and 1a figure, The words of the wise, and their 2dark sayings.
1Or, an interpretation, or, a parable,
2Or, riddles.
1: 7 The awe of Jehovah is 3the beginning of knowledge; But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
3Or, the chief part of knowledge;
1: 8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the 4law of thy mother:
4Or, teaching
1: 9 For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, And chains about thy neck.
1: 10 My son, if sinners entice thee, Consent thou not.
1: 11 If they say, Come with us, Let us lay in wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;
1: 12 Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, 5And whole, as those that go down into the pit;
5Or, Even the perfect,
1: 13 We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil;
1: 14 6Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse:
6Or, Cast in thy lot among us;
1: 15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; Refrain thy foot from their path:
1: 16 For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood.
1: 17 For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird:
1: 18 And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own souls.
1: 19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It taketh away the soul of the owners thereof.
1: 20 Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places;
1: 21 She crieth 7in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she uttereth her words:
7Hb. at the head of the noisy streets;
1: 22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?
1: 23 Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words unto you.
1: 24 Because I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;
1: 25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, And would none of my reproof:
1: 26 I also will laugh in the day of your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
1: 27 When your fear cometh as 8a storm, And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come upon you.
8Or, desolation,
1: 28 Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; They will seek me 9diligently but they shall not find me:
9Or, early
1: 29 For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the awe of Jehovah:
1: 30 They would have none of my counsel; They despised all my reproof.
1: 31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own devices.
1: 32 For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.
1: 33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil.
