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 subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

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

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

If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily 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 precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

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

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

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

And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily 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, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

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

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

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; who taketh away the life of its owners.

Because I have called, and ye 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 ye have set at naught all my counsel, and rejected my reproof:

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

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

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

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

They rejected my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

But whoever hearkeneth to me shall dwell in safety, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

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

For they shalt be an ornament of grace to thy head, and chains about thy neck.

Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

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

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

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