Proverbs 1
The full text of Proverbs 1 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David,
king of Israel:
2 For learning wisdom and discipline,
for understanding words of insight,
3 for receiving discipline that brings prudence—
righteousness, justice, and uprightness,
4 for giving shrewdness to the naive,
knowledge and discretion to the young—
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and the discerning acquire guidance,
6 for understanding a proverb and a puzzle,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and discipline.
8 Listen, my son, to your father's discipline,
and do not forsake your mother's teaching,
9 for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
11 If they say, "Come with us,
let us lie in wait for blood,
let us ambush the innocent without cause;
12 let us swallow them alive like Sheol,
whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we will find all kinds of precious wealth,
we will fill our houses with plunder;
14 throw in your lot with us—
we will all share one purse"—
15 my son, do not walk in the way with them;
hold back your foot from their path,
16 for their feet run toward evil,
and they hurry to shed blood.
17 How useless to spread a net
in the sight of any bird!
18 But they lie in wait for their own blood;
they ambush their own lives.
19 Such are the paths of all who profit by violence;
it takes the life of those who gain it.
20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street;
in the public squares she raises her voice.
21 At the head of the noisy streets she calls out;
at the entrances of the gates in the city she speaks her words:
22 "How long, O naive ones, will you love naivety?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn back at my rebuke!
Look—I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I called and you refused,
I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention,
25 and you neglected all my counsel
and would not accept my rebuke—
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when dread comes upon you,
27 when dread comes upon you like a storm
and your calamity arrives like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call to me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently but will not find me,
29 because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
30 did not accept my counsel,
and spurned all my rebuke.
31 So they will eat the fruit of their own way
and be filled with their own schemes.
32 For the waywardness of the naive will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them.
33 But whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease from the dread of evil."
Translation notes (7)
- Proverbs 1:1a Hebrew mashal (מָשָׁל), 'proverb', covers a broader range than the English word, including comparisons, taunts and extended discourses. This superscription introduces the whole book, though later headings credit other material to the wise (22:17), Agur (30:1) and Lemuel (31:1), indicating an anthology gathered under Solomon's name as Israel's patron of wisdom (1 Kings 4:32).
- Proverbs 1:6a The Hebrew chidah (חִידָה), 'riddle', is a technical term of the wisdom genre, used of Samson's riddle in Judges 14 and the queen of Sheba's hard questions in 1 Kings 10:1. It pairs here with melitsah, 'puzzle', a rare word denoting an oblique or figurative saying whose meaning must be worked out; both mark proverbs as speech designed to reward interpretive effort.
- Proverbs 1:7a Reshit (רֵאשִׁית) means both 'beginning' and 'chief part', so the fear of the LORD may be either the starting point of knowledge or its foremost element; the translation retains 'beginning' while the second sense remains possible. The word evilim, 'fools', denotes moral obstinacy rather than lack of intelligence, a distinction the book maintains throughout.
- Proverbs 1:12a Sheol (Hebrew she'ol) is the underworld of Israelite cosmology, the realm of the dead pictured as a devouring mouth that is never satisfied (compare Proverbs 27:20; Isaiah 5:14). The parallel term bor, 'pit', literally a cistern, serves as a common synonym for the grave, so the robbers boast that they will consume their victims as death itself does.
- Proverbs 1:17a Hebrew ba'al kanaf, literally 'owner of a wing', is an idiom for any bird. The proverb's point is debated: either the net spread openly is useless because the bird sees it and escapes, or the bird sees the net yet is snared anyway. The following verse favors the first sense—the ambushers, unlike the bird, rush blindly into their own trap.
- Proverbs 1:20a The Hebrew chokhmot (חָכְמוֹת), 'wisdom', is plural in form yet takes a singular feminine verb, a construction commonly understood as a plural of intensity marking Wisdom as a majestic personified figure. Her public proclamation in street and square opens the first of several speeches by personified Wisdom in Proverbs (compare 8:1-36 and 9:1-6).
- Proverbs 1:23a Hebrew ruach (רוּחַ) spans 'spirit', 'breath', and 'wind'; here personified Wisdom pours out her ruach in parallel with making her words known, so the sense is her mind or inward thought expressed in speech. The verb abbi'ah, 'I will pour out', literally means 'cause to bubble forth', the image of a gushing spring.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Hebrew and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of Proverbs, is free to read here on the web.
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