New King James Version  
Chapter 150
Let All Things Praise the Lord
1Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
2Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
3Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
4Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
5Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
6Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
Proverbs
Chapter 1
The Beginning of Knowledge
1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
2To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,
3To receive the instruction of wisdom,
Justice, judgment, and equity;
4To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion—
5A wise man will hear and increase learning,
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
6To understand a proverb and an enigma,
The words of the wise and their riddles.
7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Shun Evil Counsel
8My son, hear the instruction of your father,
And do not forsake the law of your mother;
9For they will be a graceful ornament on your head,
And chains about your neck.
10My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent.
11If they say, “Come with us,
Let us lie in wait to shed blood;
Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;
12Let us swallow them alive like Sheol,
And whole, like those who go down to the Pit;
13We shall find all kinds of precious possessions,
We shall fill our houses with spoil;
14Cast in your lot among us,
Let us all have one purse”—
15My son, do not walk in the way with them,
Keep your foot from their path;
16For their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed blood.
17Surely, in vain the net is spread
In the sight of any bird;
18But they lie in wait for their own blood,
They lurk secretly for their own lives.
19So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain;
It takes away the life of its owners.
The Call of Wisdom
20Wisdom calls aloud outside;
She raises her voice in the open squares.
21She cries out in the chief concourses,
At the openings of the gates in the city
She speaks her words:
22“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?
For scorners delight in their scorning,
And fools hate knowledge.
23Turn at my rebuke;
Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
24Because I have called and you refused,
I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,
25Because you disdained all my counsel,
And would have none of my rebuke,
26I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your terror comes,
27When your terror comes like a storm,
And your destruction comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
28“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
29Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30They would have none of my counsel
And despised my every rebuke.
31Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
32For the turning away of the simple will slay them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33But whoever listens to me will dwell safely,
And will be secure, without fear of evil.”
Chapter 2
The Value of Wisdom
1My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you,
2So that you incline your ear to wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding;
3Yes, if you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
4If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,
And find the knowledge of God.
6For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
8He guards the paths of justice,
And preserves the way of His saints.
9Then you will understand righteousness and justice,
Equity and every good path.
10When wisdom enters your heart,
And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11Discretion will preserve you;
Understanding will keep you,
12To deliver you from the way of evil,
From the man who speaks perverse things,
13From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the ways of darkness;
14Who rejoice in doing evil,
And delight in the perversity of the wicked;
15Whose ways are crooked,
And who are devious in their paths;
16To deliver you from the immoral woman,
From the seductress who flatters with her words,
17Who forsakes the companion of her youth,
And forgets the covenant of her God.
18For her house leads down to death,
And her paths to the dead;
19None who go to her return,
Nor do they regain the paths of life—
20So you may walk in the way of goodness,
And keep to the paths of righteousness.
21For the upright will dwell in the land,
And the blameless will remain in it;
22But the wicked will be cut off from the earth,
And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.

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