  THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON     
  -----------------------

  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.


