Proverbs 1:1-3:18

² To know wisdom and instruction,
To discern the sayings of understanding,
³ To receive instruction in wise behavior,
Righteousness, justice and equity;
⁴ To give prudence to the naive,
To the youth knowledge and discretion,
⁵ A wise man will hear and increase in learning,
And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
⁶ To understand a proverb and a figure,
The words of the wise and their riddles.

⁸ Hear, my son, your father’s instruction
And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;
⁹ Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head
And ornaments about your neck.
¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent.
¹¹ If they say, “Come with us,
Let us lie in wait for blood,
Let us ambush the innocent without cause;
¹² Let us swallow them alive like Sheol,
Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;
¹³ We will find all kinds of precious wealth,
We will fill our houses with spoil;
¹⁴ Throw in your lot with us,
We shall all have one purse,”
¹⁵ My son, do not walk in the way with them.
Keep your feet from their path,
¹⁶ For their feet run to evil
And they hasten to shed blood.
¹⁷ Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net
In the sight of any bird;
¹⁸ But they lie in wait for their own blood;
They ambush their own lives.
¹⁹ So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence;
It takes away the life of its possessors.

²⁰ Wisdom shouts in the street,
She lifts her voice in the square;
²¹ At the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:
²² “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded?
And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing
And fools hate knowledge?
²³ “Turn to my reproof,
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;
²⁵ And you neglected all my counsel
And did not want my reproof;
²⁶ I will also laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your dread comes,
²⁷ When your dread comes like a storm
And your calamity 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 they will not find me,
²⁹ Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord.
³⁰ “They would not accept my counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.
³¹ “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way
And be satiated with their own devices.
³² “For the waywardness of the naive will kill them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
³³ “But he who listens to me shall live securely
And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

2 ¹My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
² Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
³ For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
⁴ If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
⁵ Then you will discern the fear of the Lord
And discover the knowledge of God.
⁶ For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
⁷ He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
⁸ Guarding the paths of justice,
And He preserves the way of His godly ones.
⁹ Then you will discern righteousness and justice
And equity and every good course.
¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart
And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
¹¹ Discretion will guard you,
Understanding will watch over you,
¹² To deliver you from the way of evil,
From the man who speaks perverse things;
¹³ From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the ways of darkness;
¹⁴ Who delight in doing evil
And rejoice in the perversity of evil;
¹⁵ Whose paths are crooked,
And who are devious in their ways;
¹⁶ To deliver you from the strange woman,
From the adulteress who flatters with her words;
¹⁷ That leaves the companion of her youth
And forgets the covenant of her God;
¹⁸ For her house sinks down to death
And her tracks lead to the dead;
¹⁹ None who go to her return again,
Nor do they reach the paths of life.
²⁰ So you will walk in the way of good men
And keep to the paths of the righteous.
²¹ For the upright will live in the land
And the blameless will remain in it;
²² But the wicked will be cut off from the land
And the treacherous will be uprooted from it.

3 ¹My son, do not forget my teaching,
But let your heart keep my commandments;
² For length of days and years of life
And peace they will add to you.
³ Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴ So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.
⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
⁸ It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.
⁹ Honor the Lord from your wealth
And from the first of all your produce;
¹⁰ So your barns will be filled with plenty
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
¹¹ My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord
Or loathe His reproof,
¹² For whom the Lord loves He reproves,
Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.