The Beginning of Knowledge
The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
to know wisdom and discipline, to understand the sayings of understanding;
to receive the discipline of good sense — righteousness and judgment and uprightness;
to give shrewdness to the simple, to a young man knowledge and discretion.
Let the wise hear and increase learning, and let the understanding one acquire guidance,
to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and discipline stubborn fools have despised.
The Enticement of Sin
Hear, my son, the discipline of your father, and do not forsake the instruction of your mother,
for they are a wreath of grace for your head, and pendants for your neck.
My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
If they say, “Come with us; let us lie in wait for blood; let us lurk for the innocent without cause;
let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
we will find all precious wealth; we will fill our houses with spoil;
throw in your lot among us; there will be one purse for all of us” —
my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their path,
for their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed blood.
For in vain is the net scattered in the eyes of every winged thing.
But they lie in wait for their own blood; they lurk for their own lives.
Such are the paths of everyone who gains unjust gain; it takes the life of its owners.
Wisdom Calls Aloud
Wisdom sings aloud in the street; in the open places she gives her voice.
At the head of the clamorous streets she calls; at the openings of the gates in the city she says her sayings:
“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? And scoffers have desired scoffing for themselves, and fools hate knowledge.
Turn at my rebuke! See, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.
Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one was attending,
and you let go of all my counsel, and did not want my rebuke —
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes,
when your dread comes like a storm, and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.
Then they will call me and I will not answer; they will seek me early and will not find me,
because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD.
They did not want my counsel; they spurned all my rebuke.
And they will eat from the fruit of their way, and be filled from their own counsels.
For the turning away of the simple will kill them, and the ease of fools will destroy them.
But whoever listens to me will dwell in safety, and be at ease from the dread of evil.”