Old/New Testament

1 Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
² To know wisdom and instruction,
    to understand sayings of understanding,
³ to gain insightful instruction,^[a]
    righteousness and justice and equity,
⁴ to give shrewdness^[b] to the simple,
    knowledge and purpose^[c] to the young,
⁵ may the wise hear and increase learning,
    and the one who understands gain direction,^[d]
6 to understand a proverb and an expression,
    words of wisdom and their riddles.
⁷ Fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge;
    wisdom and instruction, fools despise.

⁸ My child, may you keep^[e] your father’s instruction,
    and do not reject your mother’s teachings,
⁹ for they are a garland of favor for your head,
    and pendants for your neck.
¹⁰ My child, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
¹¹ If they say,
    “Come with us!
    We shall lie in wait for blood;
    we shall ambush the innocent without cause.^[f]
12 Like Sheol,^[g] we will swallow them alive
    and whole, like those who descend to the pit.^[h]
13 We shall find all precious wealth,
    we shall fill our houses with booty,
¹⁴ you shall throw your lot in our midst,
    there will be one purse for all of us.”
¹⁵ My child, do not walk in their way.^[i]
    Keep your foot from their paths,
¹⁶ for their feet run to evil,
    and they hurry to shed blood,
¹⁷ for “in vain^[j] is the net scattered,
    in the sight of any winged bird.”^[k]
18 They lie in wait for their own blood.
    They ambush their own lives.
¹⁹ Thus are the ways of all who are greedy for gain—
    it will take the life of its possessors.

²⁰ Wisdom calls out in the streets,
    in the squares she raises her voice.
²¹ On a busy corner^[l] she cries out,
    at the entrances of the gates in the city, she speaks her sayings:
²² “How long,^[m] O simple ones, will you love simplicity?
    And how long will scoffers delight in their scoffing,
    and fools hate knowledge?
²³ May you turn to my argument!^[n]
    Behold, I shall pour out my spirit upon you;
    I will make my words known to you.
²⁴ Because I called out and you refused me,
    I stretched out my hand, yet there is none who heeds.
²⁵ You have ignored all my counsel,
    and my reproof you are not willing to accept.
²⁶ I will also laugh at your calamity;^[o]
    I will mock when panic^[p] comes upon you.
²⁷ When your panic comes like a storm,
    and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind,
    when distress and anguish come upon you,
²⁸ then they will call^[q] me, but I will not answer;
    they will seek me diligently but not find me.
²⁹ Since they hated knowledge,
    and did not choose the fear of Yahweh,
³⁰ they were not willing to accept my counsel,
    they despised all my reproof.
³¹ They shall eat from the fruit of their way,
    and they shall be sated from their own schemes,
³² for the waywardness of the simple ones will kill them,
    and the complacency of fools will destroy them.
³³ Whoever listens to me will dwell in security
    and rest securely^[r] from dread and disaster.”

2 My child, if you will receive^[s] my sayings,
    and hide my commands with you,
² in order to incline your ear toward wisdom,
    then you shall apply your heart to understanding.
³ For if you cry out for understanding,^[t]
    if you lift^[u] your voice for insight,
⁴ if you seek her like silver
    and search her out like treasure,^[v]
5 then you will understand the fear of Yahweh,
    and the knowledge of God you will find.
⁶ For Yahweh will give wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
⁷ For the upright, he stores^[w] sound judgment, a shield for those who walk uprightly,
⁸ in order to guard paths of justice
    and keep^[x] the way of his faithful ones.
⁹ Then you will understand righteousness and justice
    and uprightness—every good course—
¹⁰ for wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul.^[y]
11 Discretion will watch over you;
    understanding will protect you,
¹² in order to deliver you from the way of evil,^[z]
    from a man who speaks devious things—
¹³ those who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to walk in ways of darkness,
¹⁴ those who are happy to do evil,
    for they delight in the deviousness of evil,
¹⁵ who are crooked in their ways,^[aa]
    and devious in their paths;
¹⁶ in order to deliver you from a strange woman,
    from a foreign woman who flatters^[ab] with her sayings,
¹⁷ she who forsakes the partner of her youth
    and has forgotten the covenant of her God,
¹⁸ for her house sinks to death,
    and to the dead^[ac] are her paths.
¹⁹ Of all who go to her, none shall return,
    nor do they reach paths of life.
²⁰ So that you will walk on the road of those who are good,
    and the paths of those who are righteous you shall keep.
²¹ For those who are upright will dwell in the land,^[ad]
    and those who are blameless^[ae] will remain in it.
²² And those who are wicked will be cut off from the land,
    and those who are treacherous will be uprooted from it.