1 The wise sayings of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. 2 To have knowledge of wise teaching; to be clear about the words of reason: 3 To be trained in the ways of wisdom, in righteousness and judging truly and straight behaviour: 4 To make the simple-minded sharp, and to give the young man knowledge, and serious purpose: 5 (The wise man, hearing, will get greater learning, and the acts of the man of good sense will be wisely guided:) 6 To get the sense of wise sayings and secrets, and of the words of the wise and their dark sayings. 7 The fear of the Lord is the start of knowledge: but the foolish have no use for wisdom and teaching. 8 My son, give ear to the training of your father, and do not give up the teaching of your mother: 9 For they will be a crown of grace for your head, and chain-ornaments about your neck. 10 My son, if sinners would take you out of the right way, do not go with them. 11 If they say, Come with us; let us make designs against the good, waiting secretly for the upright, without cause; 12 Let us overcome them living, like the underworld, and in their strength, as those who go down to death; 13 Goods of great price will be ours, our houses will be full of wealth; 14 Take your chance with us, and we will all have one money-bag: 15 My son, do not go with them; keep your feet from their ways: 16 For their feet are running after evil, and they are quick to take a man's life. 17 Truly, to no purpose is the net stretched out before the eyes of the bird: 18 And they are secretly waiting for their blood and making ready destruction for themselves. 19 Such is the fate of everyone who goes in search of profit; it takes away the life of its owners. 20 Wisdom is crying out in the street; her voice is loud in the open places; 21 Her words are sounding in the meeting-places, and in the doorways of the town: 22 How long, you simple ones, will foolish things be dear to you? and pride a delight to the haters of authority? how long will the foolish go on hating knowledge? 23 Be turned again by my sharp words: see, I will send the flow of my spirit on you, and make my words clear to you. 24 Because your ears were shut to my voice; no one gave attention to my out-stretched hand; 25 You were not controlled by my guiding, and would have nothing to do with my sharp words: 26 So in the day of your trouble I will be laughing; I will make sport of your fear; 27 When your fear comes on you like a storm, and your trouble like a rushing wind; when pain and sorrow come on you. 28 Then I will give no answer to their cries; searching for me early, they will not see me: 29 For they were haters of knowledge, and did not give their hearts to the fear of the Lord: 30 They had no desire for my teaching, and my words of protest were as nothing to them. 31 So the fruit of their way will be their food, and with the designs of their hearts they will be made full. 32 For the turning back of the simple from teaching will be the cause of their death, and the peace of the foolish will be their destruction. 33 But whoever gives ear to me will take his rest safely, living in peace without fear of evil.
Proverbs · Bible in Basic English
Proverbs 1 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (32)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Proverbs 10:1; 1 Chronicles 22:9; 1 Chronicles 28:5; Ecclesiastes 1:1; Proverbs 25:1
- 2 Proverbs 7:4; Deuteronomy 4:5–6; Proverbs 17:16; 2 Timothy 3:15–17; 1 Kings 3:9–12
- 3 Proverbs 2:1–9; Job 22:22; 1 Kings 3:28; Proverbs 8:10–11
- 4 Proverbs 8:5; Proverbs 8:17; Psalm 119:9; Psalm 119:130; Proverbs 8:32
- 5 Proverbs 12:1; Proverbs 9:9; 1 Corinthians 10:15; Job 34:10; Job 34:16
- 6 Psalm 78:2; Mark 4:11; Psalm 49:4; Hebrews 5:14; Acts 8:30–31
- 7 Job 28:28; Proverbs 9:10; Psalms 111:10–112:1; Ecclesiastes 12:13; Proverbs 15:33
- 8 Proverbs 6:20; Proverbs 30:17; Proverbs 5:1–2; Proverbs 31:1; 2 Timothy 1:5
- 9 Proverbs 4:9; Daniel 5:29; Genesis 41:42; Proverbs 6:20–21; Proverbs 3:22
- 10 Ephesians 5:11; Proverbs 16:29; Psalm 1:1; Proverbs 13:20; Deuteronomy 13:8
- 11 Proverbs 1:18; Jeremiah 5:26; Proverbs 12:6; Jeremiah 18:18–20; Acts 25:3
- 12 Psalm 124:3; Psalm 28:1; Romans 3:13; Micah 3:2–3; Psalm 5:9
- 13 1 Timothy 6:9–10; Luke 12:15; Job 24:2–3; Nahum 2:12; Isaiah 10:13–14
- 15 Psalm 119:101; Psalm 1:1; Proverbs 4:14–15; Proverbs 4:27; Psalm 26:4–5
- 16 Isaiah 59:7; Proverbs 6:18; Proverbs 4:16; Romans 3:5
- 17 Job 35:11; Jeremiah 8:7; Proverbs 7:23; Isaiah 1:3
- 18 Psalm 9:16; Esther 7:10; Proverbs 28:17; Proverbs 5:22–23; Psalm 7:14–16
- 19 Proverbs 15:27; 2 Peter 2:3; Proverbs 23:3–4; Jeremiah 22:17–19; Habakkuk 2:9
- 20 Proverbs 9:3; Colossians 2:3; Proverbs 8:1–5; Luke 11:49; 1 Corinthians 1:24
- 21 Acts 5:20; Matthew 10:27; Proverbs 9:3; Matthew 13:2; John 18:20
- 22 Proverbs 1:29; Proverbs 5:12; John 3:20; 2 Peter 3:3; Psalm 1:1
- 23 Acts 3:19; Ezekiel 33:11; Ezekiel 18:27–30; Acts 2:36–38; Joel 2:28
- 24 Romans 10:21; Isaiah 65:12; Jeremiah 7:13; Isaiah 66:4; Hebrews 12:25–26
- 25 Luke 7:30; Psalm 81:11; Proverbs 1:30; Proverbs 12:1; Psalm 107:11
- 26 Proverbs 10:24; Psalm 37:13; Psalm 2:4; Proverbs 6:15; Luke 14:24
- 27 Proverbs 3:25–26; Psalm 69:22–28; Psalm 58:9; Proverbs 10:24–25; Romans 2:9
- 28 Micah 3:4; Zechariah 7:13; James 4:3; Jeremiah 11:11; Isaiah 1:15
- 29 Proverbs 6:23; Proverbs 1:22; Job 21:14–15; Hebrews 11:25; Isaiah 27:11
- 30 Psalm 81:11; Proverbs 1:25; Luke 14:18–20; Jeremiah 8:9; Psalm 119:173
- 31 Proverbs 14:14; Jeremiah 6:19; Job 4:8; Proverbs 22:8; Galatians 6:7–8
- 32 Proverbs 8:36; John 3:36; Jeremiah 2:19; Luke 16:19–25; Hebrews 12:25
- 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).
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.
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.
… 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)
… 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 …
… 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)