The Beginning of Knowledge
(Proverbs 9:1–12)

1Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel;

2To know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding;

3To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment, and uprightness;

4To give craftiness to the simple, and to the youth, knowledge and meditation.

5The wise one will hear and he will add learning: and he understanding, shall obtain guidance:

6To understand a proverb, and an enigma: the words of the wise and their parables.

7The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge: the foolish despised wisdom and instruction.

The Enticement of Sin

8My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and thou shalt not reject the law of thy mother:

9For they a garland of grace to thy head, and necklaces for thy throat.

10My son, if they sinning shall entice thee, thou shalt not go in.

11If they shall say, Go with us, we will lie in wait for blood, we will hide for the innocent gratuitously;

12We will swallow them down living, as hades, and whole, as they going down to the pit:

13We shall find precious riches, we will fill our houses with spoil:

14Wilt thou cast thy lot in the midst of us; one purse shall be to all:

15My son, thou shalt not go in the way with them; withhold thy foot from their beaten paths:

16For their feet will run to evil, and they will hasten to pour out blood:

17For gratuitously the net was spread in the eyes of all possessing a wing.

18And they will lie in wait for their blood; they will hide for their souls.

19So the ways of every one plundering plunder; he will take the soul of those possessing it.

Wisdom Calls Aloud

20Wisdom will cry without; in the broad places she will give her voice:

21She will call in the head of sound, in the entrances of the gates: in the city she will say her words:

22How long, ye simple, will ye love simplicity? and mockers delight to mock for them, and the foolish hate knowledge?

23Ye shall turn back at my reproofs: behold, I will pour forth my spirit to you, I will make known my words to you.

24Because I called and ye will refuse; I stretched forth my hands, and none attending;

25And ye will reject all my counsels, and ye desired not my reproofs:

26Also I will laugh at your ruin: I will deride in the coming of your terror;

27In your terror coming as a destroying tempest, and your ruin shall come as a whirlwind; in the coming upon you of straits and distress.

28Then they shall call upon me, and I will not answer; they shall seek me, and shall not find me;

29For that they hated knowledge, and chose not the fear of Jehovah:

30They desired not for my counsels: and derided all my reproofs.

31And they shall eat from the fruit of their way, and be filled with their purposes.

32For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the error of the foolish shall destroy them.

33And he hearing to me shall dwell in confidence, and being quiet from fear of evil.