²⁰ Wisdom crieth without;
she uttereth her voice in the streets:
²¹ she crieth in the chief place of concourse,
in the openings of the gates:
in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
²² How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
and the scorners delight in their scorning,
and fools hate knowledge?
²³ Turn you at my reproof:
behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you,
I will make known my words unto you.

²⁴ Because I have called, and ye refused;
I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
²⁵ but ye have set at nought all my counsel,
and would none of my reproof:
²⁶ I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your fear cometh;
²⁷ when your fear cometh as desolation,
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;
when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
²⁸ Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer;
they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
²⁹ for that they hated knowledge,
and did not choose the fear of the Lord:
³⁰ they would none of my counsel:
they despised all my reproof.
³¹ Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way,
and be filled with their own devices.
³² For the turning away of the simple shall slay them,
and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
³³ But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely,
and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

¹¹ My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord;
neither be weary of his correction:
¹² for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth;
even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

4 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father,
and attend to know understanding.

⁷ He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame:
and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.
⁸ Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee:
rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

¹⁷ He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction:
    but he that refuseth reproof erreth.

12 Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge:
    but he that hateth reproof is brutish.

13 A wise son heareth his father’s instruction:
    but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

¹⁸ Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction:
    but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.

⁵ A fool despiseth his father’s instruction:
    but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.