1 The parables of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel;

2 to know wisdom and knowing; to understand the words of prudence;

3 and to take the learning of teach-ing; to take rightfulness [or rightwise-ness], and doom, and equity;

4 that fellness, or wariness, be given to little children, and knowing and understanding to a young waxing man.

5 A wise man hearing shall be the wiser; and a man understanding shall hold governance.

6 He shall perceive a parable, and the expounding; the words of wise men, and the dark figurative speeches of them.

7 The dread of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom and teaching.

8 My son, hear thou the teaching of thy father, and forsake thou not the law of thy mother;

9 that grace be added, either increased, to thine head, and a bie to thy neck.

10 My son, if sinners flatter thee, assent thou not to them.

11 If they say, Come thou with us, set we ambush to shed blood, hide we snares of deceits against an innocent without cause;

12 swallow we him, as hell swallow-eth a man living; and all-whole, as going down into a pit;

13 we shall find all precious chattel [or substance], we shall fill our houses with spoils;

14 put thou lot with us, one purse be there of us all;

15 my son, go thou not with them; forbid thy foot from the paths of them.

16 For the feet of them run to evil; and they hasten to shed out blood.

17 But a net is laid in vain before the eyes of birds, that have wings.

18 Also they set ambush against their own blood; and make ready frauds, or guiles, against their own souls.

19 So the paths of each avaricious man ravish, or take away, the souls of them that wield.

20 Wisdom preacheth withoutforth; in streets it giveth his voice.

21 It crieth oft in the head of companies; in the leaves of [the] gates of the city it bringeth forth his words, and saith,

22 How long, little men in wit, love young childhood, and fools shall covet those things, that be harmful to themselves, and unprudent men shall hate knowing?

23 Be ye converted at my reproving; lo, I shall bring forth to you my spirit, and I shall show my words.

24 For I called, and ye forsook; I held forth mine hand, and none there was that beheld.

25 Ye have despised all my counsel; and charged not my blamings.

26 And I shall laugh in your perishing; and I shall scorn you, when that, that ye dread, cometh to you.

27 When sudden wretchedness falleth in, and perishing befalleth as tempest; when tribulation and anguish cometh on you.

28 Then they shall call me, and I shall not hear; they shall rise early, and they shall not find me.

29 For they hated teaching, and they took not the dread of the Lord,

30 neither they assented to my counsel, and they depraved all mine amending.

31 Therefore they shall eat the fruits of their way; and they shall be filled with their counsels.

32 The turning away of little men in wit shall slay them; and the prosperity of fools shall lose them.

33 But he that heareth me, shall rest without dread; and he shall use abundance, when the dread of evils is taken away.