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The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
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To know wisdom and instruction; To discern the words of understanding;
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To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness and justice and equity;
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To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion:
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That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels:
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To understand a proverb, and a figure, The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
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The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; [But] the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
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My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother:
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For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, And chains about thy neck.
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My son, if sinners entice thee, Consent thou not.
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If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;
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Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit;
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We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil;
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Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse:
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My son, walk not thou in the way with them; Refrain thy foot from their path:
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For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood.
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For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird:
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And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own lives.
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So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
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Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places;
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She crieth in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she uttereth her words:
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How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?
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Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words unto you.
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Because I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded;
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But ye have set at nought all my counsel, And would none of my reproof:
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I also will laugh in [the day of] your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
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When your fear cometh as a storm, And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come upon you.
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Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me:
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For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Jehovah:
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They would none of my counsel; They despised all my reproof.
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Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own devices.
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For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them.
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But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil.
