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