Proverbs 1:8-33

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁸ Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,
    and do not reject your mother’s teaching,^(A)
9 for they are a fair garland for your head
    and pendants for your neck.^(B)
10 My child, if sinners entice you,
    do not consent.^(C)
11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
    let us wantonly ambush the innocent;^(D)
12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive
    and whole, like those who go down to the Pit.^(E)
13 We shall find all kinds of costly things;
    we shall fill our houses with spoil.
¹⁴ Throw in your lot among us;
    we will all have one purse”—
¹⁵ my child, do not walk in their way;
    keep your foot from their paths,^(F)
16 for their feet run to evil,
    and they hurry to shed blood.^(G)
17 For in vain is the net baited
    while the bird is looking on;
¹⁸ yet they lie in wait—to kill themselves!
    and set an ambush—for their own lives!
¹⁹ Such is the end^[a] of all who are greedy for gain;
    it takes away the life of its possessors.^(H)

²⁰ Wisdom cries out in the street;
    in the squares she raises her voice.^(I)
21 At the busiest corner she cries out;
    at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
²² “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
    and fools hate knowledge?^(J)
23 Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
    I will make my words known to you.^(K)
24 Because I have called and you refused,
    have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,^(L)
25 and because you have ignored all my counsel
    and would have none of my reproof,^(M)
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
    I will mock when panic strikes you,^(N)
27 when panic strikes you like a storm
    and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
    when distress and anguish come upon you.
²⁸ Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
    they will seek me diligently but will not find me.^(O)
29 Because they hated knowledge
    and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
³⁰ would have none of my counsel
    and despised all my reproof,^(P)
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
    and be sated with their own devices.^(Q)
32 For waywardness kills the simple,
    and the complacency of fools destroys them;^(R)
33 but those who listen to me will be secure
    and will live at ease without dread of disaster.”^(S)