The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;

To give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their riddles.

My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother:

If they say, Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause:

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

We shall find all kinds of precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;

My son, walk not in the way with them; refrain your foot from their path:

Cast in your lot among us; let us all have one purse:

And they lie in wait for their own blood; they lurk secretly for their own lives.

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scoffers delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?

Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she utters her words, saying,

So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain; which takes away the life of its owners.

Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

But you have ignored all my counsel, and would have none of my reproof:

I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;

Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

Because they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

When your terror comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish comes upon you.

They would have none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

But whosoever hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be secure from the fear of evil.

For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

For they shall be an ornament of grace unto your head, and chains about your neck.

Wisdom cries aloud outside; she raises her voice in the open square:

To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

My son, if sinners entice you, consent not.

A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: