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Proverbs · American Standard Version (1901)

Proverbs 1 American Standard Version (1901)

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About ASV
  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Critical text
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Formal (word for word)
  • 1901
  • Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction; To discern the words of understanding; 3 To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness and justice and equity; 4 To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion: 5 That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; And that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels: 6 To understand a proverb, and a figure, The words of the wise, and their dark sayings. 7 The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; [But] the foolish despise wisdom and instruction. 8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, And forsake not the law of thy mother: 9 For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, And chains about thy neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice thee, Consent thou not. 11 If they say, Come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause; 12 Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit; 13 We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil; 14 Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse: 15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; Refrain thy foot from their path: 16 For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood. 17 For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird: 18 And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own lives. 19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It taketh away the life of the owners thereof. 20 Wisdom crieth aloud in the street; She uttereth her voice in the broad places; 21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she uttereth her words: 22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And scoffers delight them in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge? 23 Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make known my words unto you. 24 Because I have called, and ye have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath regarded; 25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, And would none of my reproof: 26 I also will laugh in [the day of] your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27 When your fear cometh as a storm, And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me: 29 For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of Jehovah, 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 backsliding of the simple shall slay them, And the careless ease of fools shall destroy them. 33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, And shall be quiet without fear of evil.

Cross references (32)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

  1. 1 Proverbs 10:1; 1 Chronicles 22:9; 1 Chronicles 28:5; Ecclesiastes 1:1; Proverbs 25:1
  2. 2 Proverbs 7:4; Deuteronomy 4:5–6; Proverbs 17:16; 2 Timothy 3:15–17; 1 Kings 3:9–12
  3. 3 Proverbs 2:1–9; Job 22:22; 1 Kings 3:28; Proverbs 8:10–11
  4. 4 Proverbs 8:5; Proverbs 8:17; Psalm 119:9; Psalm 119:130; Proverbs 8:32
  5. 5 Proverbs 12:1; Proverbs 9:9; 1 Corinthians 10:15; Job 34:10; Job 34:16
  6. 6 Psalm 78:2; Mark 4:11; Psalm 49:4; Hebrews 5:14; Acts 8:30–31
  7. 7 Job 28:28; Proverbs 9:10; Psalms 111:10–112:1; Ecclesiastes 12:13; Proverbs 15:33
  8. 8 Proverbs 6:20; Proverbs 30:17; Proverbs 5:1–2; Proverbs 31:1; 2 Timothy 1:5
  9. 9 Proverbs 4:9; Daniel 5:29; Genesis 41:42; Proverbs 6:20–21; Proverbs 3:22
  10. 10 Ephesians 5:11; Proverbs 16:29; Psalm 1:1; Proverbs 13:20; Deuteronomy 13:8
  11. 11 Proverbs 1:18; Jeremiah 5:26; Proverbs 12:6; Jeremiah 18:18–20; Acts 25:3
  12. 12 Psalm 124:3; Psalm 28:1; Romans 3:13; Micah 3:2–3; Psalm 5:9
  13. 13 1 Timothy 6:9–10; Luke 12:15; Job 24:2–3; Nahum 2:12; Isaiah 10:13–14
  14. 15 Psalm 119:101; Psalm 1:1; Proverbs 4:14–15; Proverbs 4:27; Psalm 26:4–5
  15. 16 Isaiah 59:7; Proverbs 6:18; Proverbs 4:16; Romans 3:5
  16. 17 Job 35:11; Jeremiah 8:7; Proverbs 7:23; Isaiah 1:3
  17. 18 Psalm 9:16; Esther 7:10; Proverbs 28:17; Proverbs 5:22–23; Psalm 7:14–16
  18. 19 Proverbs 15:27; 2 Peter 2:3; Proverbs 23:3–4; Jeremiah 22:17–19; Habakkuk 2:9
  19. 20 Proverbs 9:3; Colossians 2:3; Proverbs 8:1–5; Luke 11:49; 1 Corinthians 1:24
  20. 21 Acts 5:20; Matthew 10:27; Proverbs 9:3; Matthew 13:2; John 18:20
  21. 22 Proverbs 1:29; Proverbs 5:12; John 3:20; 2 Peter 3:3; Psalm 1:1
  22. 23 Acts 3:19; Ezekiel 33:11; Ezekiel 18:27–30; Acts 2:36–38; Joel 2:28
  23. 24 Romans 10:21; Isaiah 65:12; Jeremiah 7:13; Isaiah 66:4; Hebrews 12:25–26
  24. 25 Luke 7:30; Psalm 81:11; Proverbs 1:30; Proverbs 12:1; Psalm 107:11
  25. 26 Proverbs 10:24; Psalm 37:13; Psalm 2:4; Proverbs 6:15; Luke 14:24
  26. 27 Proverbs 3:25–26; Psalm 69:22–28; Psalm 58:9; Proverbs 10:24–25; Romans 2:9
  27. 28 Micah 3:4; Zechariah 7:13; James 4:3; Jeremiah 11:11; Isaiah 1:15
  28. 29 Proverbs 6:23; Proverbs 1:22; Job 21:14–15; Hebrews 11:25; Isaiah 27:11
  29. 30 Psalm 81:11; Proverbs 1:25; Luke 14:18–20; Jeremiah 8:9; Psalm 119:173
  30. 31 Proverbs 14:14; Jeremiah 6:19; Job 4:8; Proverbs 22:8; Galatians 6:7–8
  31. 32 Proverbs 8:36; John 3:36; Jeremiah 2:19; Luke 16:19–25; Hebrews 12:25
  32. 33 Psalm 25:12–13; Isaiah 26:3; Psalm 112:7–8; John 10:27–29; Proverbs 14:26

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

  1. Quotes verse 1:23–31 Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians (Chapters LIII–LVIII)

    For it is better for you that ye should occupy a humble but honourable place in the flock of Christ, than that, being highly exalted, ye should be cast out from the hope of His people. For thus speaketh all-virtuous Wisdom: "Behold, I will bring forth to you the words of My Spirit, and I will teach you My speech.

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  2. Quotes verse 1:7 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter XXII)

    Now, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;" the sense of sin leads to repentance, and God bestows His compassion upon those who are penitent.

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  3. Quotes verse 1:11–13 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVII, Chapter 19)

    … what we read in the Proverbs of impious men saying, "Let us unrighteously hide in the earth the righteous man; yea, let us swallow him up alive as hell, and let us take away his memory from the earth: let us seize his precious possession," is not so obscure that it may not be understood, without laborious exposition, of Christ …

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)

  4. Quotes verse 1:20 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book V, Chapter XIX)

    … and therefore the "wisdom" of God, by means of which she saves all men, "is declared in [its] going forth; it uttereth [its voice] faithfully in the streets, is preached on the tops of the walls, and speaks continually in the gates of the city." For the Church preaches the truth everywhere, and she is the seven-branched candlestick which bears …

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  5. Quotes verse 1:26 Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament (Sermon XLIII)

    … by ought of their own; but that wisdom was in them, of which it is written in a certain book, she shall say to those that despised her, when they have fallen upon the evils which she threatened them; "I will laugh over your destruction." What wonder then is it, that the wise mock the foolish virgins?

    Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)