2For learning about wisdom and instruction,

for understanding words of insight,

3for gaining instruction in wise dealing,

righteousness, justice, and equity;*

4to teach shrewdness to the simple,

knowledge and prudence to the young—*

5let the wise, too, hear and gain in learning

and the discerning acquire skill,*

6to understand a proverb and a figure,

the words of the wise and their riddles.

7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction.*

8Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,

and do not reject your mother’s teaching,*

9for they are a fair garland for your head

and pendants for your neck.*

10My child, if sinners entice you,

do not consent.*

11If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;

let us wantonly ambush the innocent;*

12like Sheol let us swallow them alive

and whole, like those who go down to the Pit.*

13We shall find all kinds of costly things;

we shall fill our houses with spoil.

14Throw in your lot among us;

we will all have one purse”—

15my child, do not walk in their way;

keep your foot from their paths,*

16for their feet run to evil,

and they hurry to shed blood.*

17For in vain is the net baited

while the bird is looking on;

18yet they lie in wait—to kill themselves!

and set an ambush—for their own lives!

19Such is the enda of all who are greedy for gain;

it takes away the life of its possessors.*

20Wisdom cries out in the street;

in the squares she raises her voice.*

21At the busiest corner she cries out;

at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

22“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing

and fools hate knowledge?*

23Give heed to my reproof;

I will pour out my thoughts to you;

I will make my words known to you.*

24Because I have called and you refused,

have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,*

25and because you have ignored all my counsel

and would have none of my reproof,*

26I also will laugh at your calamity;

I will mock when panic strikes you,*

27when panic strikes you like a storm

and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,

when distress and anguish come upon you.

28Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;

they will seek me diligently but will not find me.*

29Because they hated knowledge

and did not choose the fear of the Lord,

30would have none of my counsel

and despised all my reproof,*

31therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way

and be sated with their own devices.*

32For waywardness kills the simple,

and the complacency of fools destroys them;*

33but those who listen to me will be secure

and will live at ease without dread of disaster.”*