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Proverbs 1

The Usefulness of Proverbs

¹The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:

2To know wisdom and instruction,

To discern the sayings of understanding,

3To receive instruction in wise behavior,

Righteousness, justice, and integrity;

4To give prudence to the naive,

To the youth knowledge and discretion,

5A wise person will hear and increase in learning,

And a person of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

6To understand a proverb and a saying,

The words of the wise and their riddles.

7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

Fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The Enticement of Sinners

8Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction,

And do not ignore your mother’s teaching;

9For they are a graceful wreath for your head

And necklaces for your neck.

10My son, if sinners entice you,

Do not consent.

11If they say, “Come with us,

Let’s lie in wait for blood,

Let’s ambush the innocent without cause;

12Let’s swallow them alive like Sheol,

Even whole, like those who go down to the pit;

13We will find all kinds of precious wealth,

We will fill our houses with plunder;

14Throw in your lot with us;

We will all have one money bag,”

15My son, do not walk on the way with them.

Keep your feet from their path,

16For their feet run to evil,

And they are quick to shed blood.

17Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net

In the sight of any bird;

18But they lie in wait for their own blood;

They ambush their own lives.

19Such are the ways of everyone who makes unjust gain;

It takes away the life of its possessors.

Wisdom Warns

20Wisdom shouts in the street,

She raises her voice in the public square;

21At the head of the noisy streets she cries out;

At the entrance of the gates in the city she declares her sayings:

22“How long, you naive ones, will you love simplistic thinking?

And how long will scoffers delight themselves in scoffing

And fools hate knowledge?

23“Turn to my rebuke,

Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you;

I will make my words known to you.

24“Because I called and you refused,

I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;

25And you neglected all my advice

And did not want my rebuke;

26I will also laugh at your disaster;

I will mock when your dread comes,

27When your dread comes like a storm

And your disaster comes like a whirlwind,

When distress and anguish come upon you.

28“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently but will not find me,

29Because they hated knowledge

And did not choose the fear of the Lord.

30“They did not accept my advice,

They disdainfully rejected every rebuke from me.

31“So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way,

And be filled with their own schemes.

32“For the faithlessness of the naive will kill them,

And the complacency of fools will destroy them.

33“But whoever listens to me will live securely

And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

Proverbs

Chapter 1

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