---
title: Joseph Smith Translation (1867 edition)
description: Proverbs from the Joseph Smith Translation (JST), 1867 edition.
authors:
  - Smith, Joseph, Jr.
collections:
  - joseph-smith
tags:
  - translation
published: "1867"
publisher: RLDS Publication Board
publisher_place: Plano, Illinois
publisher_note: "The title page reads: Published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; Joseph Smith, I. L. Rogers, E. Robinson, Publishing Committee; 1867."
edition: First edition (Plano, 1867)
language: en
type: book
chapter: 1
verse_count: 33
reference: "Joseph Smith Jr., *Joseph Smith Translation*, first edition (Plano, IL: RLDS Publication Board, 1867), Proverbs, chap. 1, https://archive.org/details/holyscripturestr00smituoft."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/holyscripturestr00smituoft
  identifier: holyscripturestr00smituoft
  scan: University of Toronto / Trinity College Library copy, Internet Archive
  transcription: "OCR text of the 1867 scans (Toronto copy and a second copy, holyscriptures00smit), reconciled word by word; Romans was also checked against the page images. Method, per-chapter validation log and known limits: docs/jst-1867-import.md."
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: 1867 US publication
  source: https://archive.org/details/holyscripturestr00smituoft
  publication_year: 1867
---

# Proverbs 1

*The use of proverbs Value of wisdom.*

**1** The Proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
**2** To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
**3** To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
**4** To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
**5** A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels;
**6** To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
**7** The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools 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 an ornament 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 the grave; 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** Cast in thy lot among us; let us 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 make haste to shed blood.
**17** Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
**18** And they 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; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
**20** Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets;
**21** She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
**22** How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
**23** Turn you at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
**24** Because I have called, and ye refused I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
**25** But ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof;
**26** I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
**27** When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind: when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
**28** Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer: they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me;
**29** For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord;
**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 turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
**33** But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.