Proverbs 1 — KJV

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