Proverbs 1–2

Prologue

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

²To know wisdom and instruction,

to understand sayings of understanding,

³to gain insightful instruction,^a

righteousness and justice and equity,

⁴to give shrewdness^b to the simple,

knowledge and purpose^c to the young,

⁵may the wise hear and increase learning,

and the one who understands gain direction,^d

⁶to understand a proverb and an expression,

words of wisdom and their riddles.

⁷Fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge;

wisdom and instruction, fools despise.

Lecture Against Gang Behavior

⁸My child, may you keep^e your father’s instruction,

and do not reject your mother’s teachings,

⁹for they are a garland of favor for your head,

and pendants for your neck.

¹⁰My child, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

¹¹If they say,

“Come with us!

We shall lie in wait for blood;

we shall ambush the innocent without cause.^f

¹²Like Sheol,^g we will swallow them alive

and whole, like those who descend to the pit.^h

¹³We shall find all precious wealth,

we shall fill our houses with booty,

¹⁴you shall throw your lot in our midst,

there will be one purse for all of us.”

¹⁵My child, do not walk in their way.ⁱ

Keep your foot from their paths,

¹⁶for their feet run to evil,

and they hurry to shed blood,

¹⁷for “in vain^j is the net scattered,

in the sight of any winged bird.”^k

¹⁸They lie in wait for their own blood.

They ambush their own lives.

¹⁹Thus are the ways of all who are greedy for gain—

it will take the life of its possessors.

The Call of Lady Wisdom

²⁰Wisdom calls out in the streets,

in the squares she raises her voice.

²¹On a busy corner^l she cries out,

at the entrances of the gates in the city, she speaks her sayings:

²²“How long,^m O simple ones, will you love simplicity?

And how long will scoffers delight in their scoffing,

and fools hate knowledge?

²³May you turn to my argument!ⁿ

Behold, I shall pour out my spirit upon you;

I will make my words known to you.

²⁴Because I called out and you refused me,

I stretched out my hand, yet there is none who heeds.

²⁵You have ignored all my counsel,

and my reproof you are not willing to accept.

²⁶I will also laugh at your calamity;^o

I will mock when panic^p comes upon you.

²⁷When your panic comes like a storm,

and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind,

when distress and anguish come upon you,

²⁸then they will call^q me, but I will not answer;

they will seek me diligently but not find me.

²⁹Since they hated knowledge,

and did not choose the fear of Yahweh,

³⁰they were not willing to accept my counsel,

they despised all my reproof.

³¹They shall eat from the fruit of their way,

and they shall be sated from their own schemes,

³²for the waywardness of the simple ones will kill them,

and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

³³Whoever listens to me will dwell in security

and rest securely^r from dread and disaster.”

The Benefits of Wisdom

2My child, if you will receive^a my sayings,

and hide my commands with you,

²in order to incline your ear toward wisdom,

then you shall apply your heart to understanding.

³For if you cry out for understanding,^b

if you lift^c your voice for insight,

⁴if you seek her like silver

and search her out like treasure,^d

⁵then you will understand the fear of Yahweh,

and the knowledge of God you will find.

⁶For Yahweh will give wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷For the upright, he stores^e sound judgment, a shield for those who walk uprightly,

⁸in order to guard paths of justice

and keep^f the way of his faithful ones.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice

and uprightness—every good course—

¹⁰for wisdom will enter your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul.^g

¹¹Discretion will watch over you;

understanding will protect you,

¹²in order to deliver you from the way of evil,^h

from a man who speaks devious things—

¹³those who forsake the paths of uprightness

to walk in ways of darkness,

¹⁴those who are happy to do evil,

for they delight in the deviousness of evil,

¹⁵who are crooked in their ways,ⁱ

and devious in their paths;

¹⁶in order to deliver you from a strange woman,

from a foreign woman who flatters^j with her sayings,

¹⁷she who forsakes the partner of her youth

and has forgotten the covenant of her God,

¹⁸for her house sinks to death,

and to the dead^k are her paths.

¹⁹Of all who go to her, none shall return,

nor do they reach paths of life.

²⁰So that you will walk on the road of those who are good,

and the paths of those who are righteous you shall keep.

²¹For those who are upright will dwell in the land,^l

and those who are blameless^m will remain in it.

²²And those who are wicked will be cut off from the land,

and those who are treacherous will be uprooted from it.