Proverbs 1 · Clearspring

The Beginning of Knowledge

¹The wise sayings of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.+ ²To have knowledge of wise teaching; to be clear about the words of reason:+ ³To be trained in the ways of wisdom, in righteousness and judging truly and straight behaviour:+ ⁴To make the simple-minded sharp, and to give the young man knowledge, and serious purpose:+ ⁵(The wise man, hearing, will get greater learning, and the acts of the man of good sense will be wisely guided:)+ ⁶To get the sense of wise sayings and secrets, and of the words of the wise and their dark sayings.+ ⁷The fear of the Lord is the start of knowledge: but the foolish have no use for wisdom and teaching.+

The Enticement of Sin

⁸My son, give ear to the training of your father, and do not give up the teaching of your mother:+ ⁹For they will be a crown of grace for your head, and chain-ornaments about your neck.+ ¹⁰My son, if sinners would take you out of the right way, do not go with them.+ ¹¹If they say, Come with us; let us make designs against the good, waiting secretly for the upright, without cause;+ ¹²Let us overcome them living, like the underworld, and in their strength, as those who go down to death;+ ¹³Goods of great price will be ours, our houses will be full of wealth;+ ¹⁴Take your chance with us, and we will all have one money-bag: ¹⁵My son, do not go with them; keep your feet from their ways:+ ¹⁶For their feet are running after evil, and they are quick to take a man's life.+ ¹⁷Truly, to no purpose is the net stretched out before the eyes of the bird:+ ¹⁸And they are secretly waiting for their blood and making ready destruction for themselves.+ ¹⁹Such is the fate of everyone who goes in search of profit; it takes away the life of its owners.+

Wisdom Calls Aloud

²⁰Wisdom is crying out in the street; her voice is loud in the open places;+ ²¹Her words are sounding in the meeting-places, and in the doorways of the town:+ ²²How long, you simple ones, will foolish things be dear to you? and pride a delight to the haters of authority? how long will the foolish go on hating knowledge?+ ²³Be turned again by my sharp words: see, I will send the flow of my spirit on you, and make my words clear to you.+ ²⁴Because your ears were shut to my voice; no one gave attention to my out-stretched hand;+ ²⁵You were not controlled by my guiding, and would have nothing to do with my sharp words:+ ²⁶So in the day of your trouble I will be laughing; I will make sport of your fear;+ ²⁷When your fear comes on you like a storm, and your trouble like a rushing wind; when pain and sorrow come on you.+ ²⁸Then I will give no answer to their cries; searching for me early, they will not see me:+ ²⁹For they were haters of knowledge, and did not give their hearts to the fear of the Lord:+ ³⁰They had no desire for my teaching, and my words of protest were as nothing to them.+ ³¹So the fruit of their way will be their food, and with the designs of their hearts they will be made full.+ ³²For the turning back of the simple from teaching will be the cause of their death, and the peace of the foolish will be their destruction.+ ³³But whoever gives ear to me will take his rest safely, living in peace without fear of evil.+

The Beginning of Knowledge

The Enticement of Sin

Wisdom Calls Aloud

Study Proverbs 1