Verse 1. The parables of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.
Verse 2. To know wisdom, and instruction:
Verse 3. To understand the words of prudence: and to receive the instruction of doctrine, justice, and judgment, and equity:
Verse 4. To give subtilty to little ones, to the young man knowledge and understanding.
Verse 5. A wise man shall hear and shall be wiser: and he that understandeth, shall possess governments.
Verse 6. He shall understand a parable, and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their mysterious sayings.
Verse 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 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. That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck.
Verse 10. My son, if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them.
Verse 11. If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent without cause:
Verse 12. Let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole as one that goeth down into the pit.
Verse 13. We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoils.
Verse 14. Cast in thy lot with us, let us all have one purse.
Verse 15. My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths.
Verse 16. For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
Verse 17. But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of them that have wings.
Verse 18. And they themselves lie in wait for their own blood, and practise deceits against their own souls.
Verse 19. So the wage of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors.
Verse 20. Wisdom preacheth abroad, she uttereth her voice in the streets:
Verse 21. At the head of multitudes she crieth out, in the entrance of the gates of the city she uttereth her words, saying:
Verse 22. O children, how long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge?
Verse 23. Turn ye at my reproof: behold I will utter my spirit to you, and will shew you my words.
Verse 24. Because I called, and you refused: I stretched out my hand, and there was none that regarded.
Verse 25. You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions.
Verse 26. I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.
Verse 27. When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you:
Verse 28. Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning and shall not find me:
Verse 29. Because they have hated instruction and received not the fear of the Lord,
Verse 30. Nor consented to my counsel, but despised all my reproof.
Verse 31. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and shall be filled with their own devices.
Verse 32. The turning away of little ones shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
Verse 33. But he that shall hear me, shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils.