² To know wisdom and instruction;
To discern the words of understanding;
³ To receive instruction in wise dealing,
In righteousness and justice and equity;
⁴ To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion:
⁵ That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning;
And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:
⁶ To understand a proverb, and ^[a]a figure,
The words of the wise, and their ^[b]dark sayings.

⁷ The fear of Jehovah is the ^[c]beginning of knowledge;
But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
⁸ My son, hear the instruction of thy father,
And forsake not the ^[d]law of thy mother:
⁹ For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head,
And chains about thy neck.
¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice thee,
Consent thou not.
¹¹ If they say, Come with us,
Let us lay wait for blood;
Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;
¹² Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol,
^[e]And whole, as those that go down into the pit;
¹³ We shall find all precious substance;
We shall fill our houses with spoil;
^14 [f]Thou shalt cast thy lot among us;
We will all have one purse:
¹⁵ My son, walk not thou in the way with them;
Refrain thy foot from their path:
¹⁶ For their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed blood.
¹⁷ For in vain is the net spread
In the sight of any bird:
¹⁸ And these lay wait for their own blood;
They lurk privily for their own lives.
¹⁹ So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain;
It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

²⁰ Wisdom crieth aloud in the street;
She uttereth her voice in the broad places;
²¹ She crieth ^[g]in the chief place of concourse;
At the entrance of the gates,
In the city, she uttereth her words:
²² How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
And scoffers delight them in scoffing,
And fools hate knowledge?
²³ Turn you at my reproof:
Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you;
I will make known my words unto you.
²⁴ Because I have called, and ye have refused;
I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;
²⁵ But ye have set at nought all my counsel,
And would none of my reproof:
²⁶ I also will laugh in the day of your calamity;
I will mock when your fear cometh;
²⁷ When your fear cometh as ^[h]a storm,
And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind;
When distress and anguish come upon you.
²⁸ Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me ^[i]diligently, but they shall not find me:
²⁹ For that they hated knowledge,
And did not choose the fear of Jehovah,
³⁰ They would none of my counsel,
They despised all my reproof.
³¹ Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
And be filled with their own devices.
³² For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them,
And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.
³³ But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely,
And shall be quiet without fear of evil.