King James Version of the Bible

Book of Proverbs

Chapter 1



1:1  The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
1:2  To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
1:3  To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
1:4  To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
1:5  A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
1:6  To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
1:8  My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
1:9  For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
1:10  My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
1:11  If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
1:12  Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
1:13  We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
1:14  Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
1:15  My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
1:16  For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
1:17  Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
1:18  And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
1:19  So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
1:20  Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
1:21  She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
1:22  How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
1:23  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
1:24  Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
1:25  But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
1:26  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
1:27  When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
1:28  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
1:29  For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
1:30  They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
1:31  Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
1:32  For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
1:33  But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.