To Know Wisdom
The aproverbs of Solomon bthe son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know awisdom and discipline,
To understand the sayings of bunderstanding,
3 To areceive discipline that leads to insight,
bRighteousness, justice, and equity,
4 To give aprudence to the bsimple,
To the youth cknowledge and discretion;
5 Let the wise man hear and aincrease in learning,
And a bman of understanding will acquire guidance,
6 To understand a proverb and an enigma,
The words of the wise and their ariddles.
7 aThe fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge;
Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline.
The Enticement of Sinners
8 aHear, my son, your father’s discipline
And bdo not abandon your mother’s instruction;
9 For they are a agarland of grace for your head
And bornaments about your neck.
10 My son, if sinners aentice you,
bDo not be willing.
11 If they say, “Come with us,
Let us alie in wait for blood,
Let us bambush the innocent without cause;
12 Let us aswallow them alive like Sheol,
And whole, as those who bgo down to the pit;
13 We will find all kinds of precious wealth,
We will fill our houses with spoil;
14 Cast in your lot with us,
We shall all have one purse,”
15 My son, ado not walk in the way with them.
bWithhold your feet from their pathway,
16 For atheir feet run to evil
And they hasten to shed blood.
17 For it is no use that a net is spread
In the sight of any bird;
18 But they alie in wait for their own blood;
They ambush their own lives.
19 So are the paths of everyone who is agreedy for gain;
It takes away the life of its possessors.
The Call of Wisdom
20 aWisdom shouts in the street,
She gives forth her voice in the square;
21 At the head of the noisy streets she calls out;
At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:
22 “How long, O asimple ones, will you love simplicity?
And bscoffers delight in scoffing
And fools chate knowledge?
23 Turn to my reproof,
Behold, I will apour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because aI called and you brefused,
I cstretched out my hand and no one paid attention;
25 And you aneglected all my counsel
And were not bwilling to accept my reproof;
26 I will also alaugh at your bdisaster;
I will mock when your cdread comes,
27 When your dread comes like a storm
And your disaster comes like a awhirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will acall on me, but I will not answer;
They will bseek me earnestly but they will not find me,
29 Because they ahated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of Yahweh.
30 They awere not willing to accept my counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.
31 So they shall aeat of the fruit of their way
And be bsatisfied with their own devices.
32 For the aturning away of the simple will kill them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
33 But ahe who listens to me shall dwell securely
And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”