LEB - Proverbs - 1

1:1  Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:

1:2  To know wisdom and instruction, to understand sayings of understanding,

1:3  to gain ⌞insightful instruction⌟, righteousness and justice and equity,

1:4  to give shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and purpose to the young,

1:5  may the wise hear and increase learning, and the one who understands gain direction,

1:6  to understand a proverb and an expression, words of wisdom and their riddles.

1:7  Fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and instruction, fools despise.

1:8  My child, may you keep your father’s instruction, and do not reject your mother’s teachings,

1:9  for they are a garland of favor for your head, and pendants for your neck.

1:10  My child, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

1:11  If they say, “Come with us! We shall lie in wait for blood; we shall ambush the innocent without cause.

1:12  Like Sheol, we will swallow them alive and whole, ⌞like those who descend to the pit⌟.

1:13  We shall find all precious wealth, we shall fill our houses with booty,

1:14  you shall throw your lot in our midst, there will be one purse for all of us.”

1:15  My child, do not walk in their way. Keep your foot from their paths,

1:16  for their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed blood,

1:17  for “in vain is the net scattered, in the sight of any ⌞winged bird⌟.”

1:18  They lie in wait for their own blood. They ambush their own lives.

1:19  Thus are the ways of all who are greedy for gain— it will take the life of its possessors.

1:20  Wisdom calls out in the streets, in the squares she raises her voice.

1:21  On a ⌞busy corner⌟ she cries out, at the entrances of the gates in the city, she speaks her sayings:

1:22  “⌞How long⌟, O simple ones, will you love simplicity? And how long will scoffers delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?

1:23  May you turn to my argument! Behold, I shall pour out my spirit upon you; I will make my words known to you.

1:24  Because I called out and you refused me, I stretched out my hand, yet there is none who heeds.

1:25  You have ignored all my counsel, and my reproof you are not willing to accept.

1:26  I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic comes upon you.

1:27  When your panic comes like a storm, and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you,

1:28  then they will call me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but not find me.

1:29  Since they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of Yahweh,

1:30  they were not willing to accept my counsel, they despised all my reproof.

1:31  They shall eat from the fruit of their way, and they shall be sated from their own schemes,

1:32  for the waywardness of the simple ones will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

1:33  Whoever listens to me will dwell in security and rest securely from dread and disaster.”