Chapter One

For gaining wisdom and instruction, understanding words of insight, the teaching of wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and integrity, lending prudence to the naive, knowledge and discretion to the young.  Let the wise listen and increase their wisdom, let men of discernment obtain guidance.  Let them understand the meaning of proverbs and parables, the sayings of the wise and their riddles.

Reverence for Jehovah is the starting point for the acquisition of knowledge.  Fools despise wisdom and discipline.  Listen, my son, to the instruction of your father and do not ignore the teaching of your mother.  They are a laurel wreath upon your head, a gold medal round your neck.

My son, if sinners seduce you, do not give in to them.  If they say to you, “Come with us.  Let’s hide in ambush and kill some innocent persons for kicks.  We’ll swallow them alive like the grave, swallow them whole like those that go down to the Pit.  We’ll find all sorts of valuable property and fill our houses with plunder.  Throw in with us and we’ll share the loot equally.”  My son, do not go along with them; don’t set foot upon their path, for their feet run to evil and they hasten to shed blood.

It is futile to spread a net in full view of any bird, but these men lie in wait to shed their own blood; they hide to ambush their own lives.  Such is the fate of all who acquire dishonest gain: it destroys the life of its possessor.

Wisdom cries out in the open and raises her voice in the public square.  At the intersection of busy streets she calls out.  At the entrance to the city gates she utters her words.  “How long, you simpletons, will you love simple-mindedness?  How long will mockers take pleasure in their mockery and fools hate knowledge?"

Respond to my reprimand — for, look, I will pour out my mind and make my thoughts known to you.  However, I have called out to you and you have refused to listen.  I have stretched out my hand, but none of you would take it.  All my advice you have disregarded and my reproofs you did not want.  Therefore, I will laugh at you when calamity strikes and mock you when terror comes upon you, when disaster overtakes you like a storm, when destruction engulfs you like a whirlwind and distress and anguish overwhelm you.

Then they will call out to me, but I won’t answer.  They will diligently seek me, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and chose not to revere Jehovah.  They rejected my advice and spurned all my criticisms.  Therefore, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be stuffed full of their own counsel.  The backsliding of the simpleton will kill him.  The smugness of the fool will destroy him.  But whoever will listen to me will live in security and tranquility, untroubled by the fear of evil.