Proverbs 1 Bible in Basic English

About BBE

Scholarly edition
OT: Masoretic Hebrew (not verified)
NT: Critical text (not verified)
Protestant (66 books)
Simplified language
1965
Public domain

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

BBE Bible in Basic English

WEB World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)

1 The wise sayings of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.

1 The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel:

2 To have knowledge of wise teaching; to be clear about the words of reason:

2 to know wisdom and instruction; to discern the words of understanding;

3 To be trained in the ways of wisdom, in righteousness and judging truly and straight behaviour:

3 to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity;

4 To make the simple-minded sharp, and to give the young man knowledge, and serious purpose:

4 to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young man—

5 (The wise man, hearing, will get greater learning, and the acts of the man of good sense will be wisely guided:)

5 that the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; that the man of understanding may attain to sound counsel;

6 To get the sense of wise sayings and secrets, and of the words of the wise and their dark sayings.

6 to understand a proverb and parables, the words and riddles of the wise.

7 The fear of the Lord is the start of knowledge: but the foolish have no use for wisdom and teaching.

7 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge, but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

8 My son, give ear to the training of your father, and do not give up the teaching of your mother:

8 My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching;

9 For they will be a crown of grace for your head, and chain-ornaments about your neck.

9 for they will be a garland to grace your head, and chains around your neck.

10 My son, if sinners would take you out of the right way, do not go with them.

10 My son, if sinners entice you, don’t consent.

11 If they say, Come with us; let us make designs against the good, waiting secretly for the upright, without cause;

11 If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lie in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.

12 Let us overcome them living, like the underworld, and in their strength, as those who go down to death;

12 Let’s swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down into the pit.

13 Goods of great price will be ours, our houses will be full of wealth;

13 We’ll find all valuable wealth. We’ll fill our houses with plunder.

14 Take your chance with us, and we will all have one money-bag:

14 You shall cast your lot among us. We’ll all have one purse”—

15 My son, do not go with them; keep your feet from their ways:

15 my son, don’t walk on the path with them. Keep your foot from their path,

16 For their feet are running after evil, and they are quick to take a man's life.

16 for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.

17 Truly, to no purpose is the net stretched out before the eyes of the bird:

17 For the net is spread in vain in the sight of any bird;

18 And they are secretly waiting for their blood and making ready destruction for themselves.

18 but these lay in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives.

19 Such is the fate of everyone who goes in search of profit; it takes away the life of its owners.

19 So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

20 Wisdom is crying out in the street; her voice is loud in the open places;

20 Wisdom calls aloud in the street. She utters her voice in the public squares.

21 Her words are sounding in the meeting-places, and in the doorways of the town:

21 She calls at the head of noisy places. At the entrance of the city gates, she utters her words:

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?

22 “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate 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.

23 Turn at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make known my words to you.

24 Because your ears were shut to my voice; no one gave attention to my out-stretched hand;

24 Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention;

25 You were not controlled by my guiding, and would have nothing to do with my sharp words:

25 but you have ignored all my counsel, and wanted none of my reproof;

26 So in the day of your trouble I will be laughing; I will make sport of your fear;

26 I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you,

27 When your fear comes on you like a storm, and your trouble like a rushing wind; when pain and sorrow come on you.

27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you.

28 Then I will give no answer to their cries; searching for me early, they will not see me:

28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me,

29 For they were haters of knowledge, and did not give their hearts to the fear of the Lord:

29 because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of Yahweh.

30 They had no desire for my teaching, and my words of protest were as nothing to them.

30 They wanted none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof.

31 So the fruit of their way will be their food, and with the designs of their hearts they will be made full.

31 Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes.

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.

32 For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.

33 But whoever gives ear to me will take his rest safely, living in peace without fear of evil.

33 But whoever listens to me will dwell securely, and will be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Cross references (32)

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

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).

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)
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)
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)
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)
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)

Old Testament

New Testament

What the Fathers said