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 naught 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;
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 counseclass="underline" 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 hearkened unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
2.
2:1. My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
2:2. So, that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
2:3. If you call knowledge and to appeal to reason;
2:4. If thou sleekest her as silver, and searches for her as for hid treasures;
2:5. Then shaltthou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
2:6. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
2:7. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
2:8. He kept the paths of judgment, and preserved the way of his saints.
2:9. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. 2:10. When wisdom entered into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
2:11. Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
2:12. To rescue you from a way angry, from the person telling lie,
2:13. Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
2:14. From what rejoice, doing the evil, admire evil debauchery,
2: 15. Which ways are curve and which wander on the paths:
2:16. Rescue you from the wife of another, from the stranger, which softens the speeches,
2:17. Which forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God?
2:18. For her house inclined unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
2:19. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
2:20. That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
2:21. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
2:22. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
3.
3:1. My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
3:2. For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee?
3:3. Let not mercy and truth forsakes thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
3:4 So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
3:5. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
3:6. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
3:8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
3:9 Honor the LORD with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase:
3:10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
3:11 My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
3:12 For whom the LORD loved he corrected; even as a father the son in whom he delighted.
3:13 Happy is the man that fended wisdom, and the man that gutted understanding.
3:14 For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
3:15 She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
3:16 Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honor.
3:17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace.
3:18 She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retained her.
3:19 The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
3:20 By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.