Day One

Proverbs Chapter 1

Proverbs
Chapter One

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son
of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction,
To discern the sayings of
understanding,
3 To receive instruction in wise
behavior,
Righteousness, justice and equity;
4 To give prudence to the naive,
To the youth knowledge and
discretion,
5 A wise man will hear and increase
in learning,
And a man of understanding will
acquire wise counsel,
6 To understand a proverb and a
figure,
The words of the wise and their
riddles.
7 The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge;
Fools despise wisdom and
instruction.
The Enticement of Sinners
8 Hear, my son, your father’s
instruction
And do not forsake your mother’s
teaching;
9 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath
to your head
And ornaments about your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent.
11 If they say, “Come with us,
Let us lie in wait for blood,
Let us ambush the innocent without
cause;
12 Let us swallow them alive like
Sheol,
Even whole, as those who go down
to the pit;
13 We will find all kinds of precious
wealth,
We will fill our houses with spoil;
14 Throw in your lot with us,
We shall all have one purse,”
15 My son, do not walk in the way
with them.
Keep your feet from their path,
16 For their feet run to evil
And they hasten to shed blood.
17 Indeed, it is useless to spread the
baited net
In the sight of any bird;
18 But they lie in wait for their own
blood;
They ambush their own lives.
19 So are the ways of everyone who
gains by violence;
It takes away the life of its
possessors.
Wisdom Warns
20 Wisdom shouts in the street,
She lifts her voice in the square;
21 At the head of the noisy streets
she cries out;
At the entrance of the gates in the
city she utters her sayings:
22 “How long, O naive ones, will you
love being simple-minded?
And scoffers delight themselves in
scoffing
And fools hate knowledge?
23 “Turn to my reproof,
Behold, I will pour out my spirit on
you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 “Because I called and you
refused,
I stretched out my hand and no one
paid attention;
25 And you neglected all my counsel
And did not want my reproof;
26 I will also laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your dread comes,
27 When your dread comes like a
storm
And your calamity comes like a
whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come
upon you.
28 “Then they will call on me, but I
will not answer;
They will seek me diligently but they
will not find me,
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the
Lord.
30 “They would not accept my
counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.
31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of
their own way
And be satiated with their own
devices.
32 “For the waywardness of the
naive will kill them,
And the complacency of fools will
destroy them.
33 “But he who listens to me shall
live securely
And will be at ease from the dread of
evil.”

“Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN
STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972,
1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman
Foundation
Used by permission.” (www.Lockman.org)