| 1. | Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: |
| 2. | For knowing wisdom and instruction, For understanding sayings of intelligence, |
| 3. | For receiving the instruction of wisdom, Righteousness, judgment, and uprightness, |
| 4. | For giving to simple ones -- prudence, To a youth -- knowledge and discretion. |
| 5. | (The wise doth hear and increaseth learning, And the intelligent doth obtain counsels.) |
| 6. | For understanding a proverb and its sweetness, Words of the wise and their acute sayings. |
| 7. | Fear of Jehovah `is' a beginning of knowledge, Wisdom and instruction fools have despised! |
| 8. | Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, And leave not the law of thy mother, |
| 9. | For a graceful wreath `are' they to thy head, And chains to thy neck. |
| 10. | My son, if sinners entice thee be not willing. |
| 11. | If they say, `Come with us, we lay wait for blood, We watch secretly for the innocent without cause, |
| 12. | We swallow them as Sheol -- alive, And whole -- as those going down `to' the pit, |
| 13. | Every precious substance we find, We fill our houses `with' spoil, |
| 14. | Thy lot thou dost cast among us, One purse is -- to all of us.' |
| 15. | My son! go not in the way with them, Withhold thy foot from their path, |
| 16. | For their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed blood. |
| 17. | Surely in vain is the net spread out before the eyes of any bird. |
| 18. | And they for their own blood lay wait, They watch secretly for their own lives. |
| 19. | So `are' the paths of every gainer of dishonest gain, The life of its owners it taketh. |
| 20. | Wisdom in an out-place crieth aloud, In broad places she giveth forth her voice, |
| 21. | At the head of the multitudes she calleth, In the openings of the gates, In the city her sayings she saith: |
| 22. | `Till when, ye simple, do ye love simplicity? And have scorners their scorning desired? And do fools hate knowledge? |
| 23. | Turn back at my reproof, lo, I pour forth to you my spirit, I make known my words with you. |
| 24. | Because I have called, and ye refuse, I stretched out my hand, and none is attending, |
| 25. | And ye slight all my counsel, And my reproof ye have not desired. |
| 26. | I also in your calamity do laugh, I deride when your fear cometh, |
| 27. | When your fear cometh as destruction, And your calamity as a hurricane doth come, When on you come adversity and distress. |
| 28. | Then they call me, and I do not answer, They seek me earnestly, and find me not. |
| 29. | Because that they have hated knowledge, And the fear of Jehovah have not chosen. |
| 30. | They have not consented to my counsel, They have despised all my reproof, |
| 31. | And they eat of the fruit of their way, And from their own counsels they are filled. |
| 32. | For the turning of the simple slayeth them, And the security of the foolish destroyeth them. |
| 33. | And whoso is hearkening to me dwelleth confidently, And `is' quiet from fear of evil!' |