BOOK 20 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Proverbs 1

Proverbs book home•Chapter 1 of 31•33 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Proverbs 1 Overview

The book opens by defining wisdom, knowledge, prudence, and the fear of the LORD; a father warns against violent sinners, then Wisdom cries publicly to those refusing correction.

ProverbsBook

1Chapter

33Verses

PoetryDivision

Before you read Proverbs 1

Coming from

Psalm 150 ended the Psalter by summoning everything that has breath to praise the LORD. Proverbs now asks what reverence for that same LORD looks like in ordinary decisions and character.

In this chapter

The book opens by defining wisdom, knowledge, prudence, and the fear of the LORD; a father warns against violent sinners, then Wisdom cries publicly to those refusing correction.

Leads into

Proverbs 2 turns to seek wisdom as treasure because it protects the path, expanding wisdom into another set of choices, contrasts, and observations.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Proverbs 1:7 is the book's controlling starting point: true wisdom begins with the fear of the LORD, not mere cleverness. Proverbs uses compact wisdom sayings to train judgment. Its normal patterns describe how God’s moral order ordinarily works; they are not mechanical guarantees that remove human freedom, suffering, or providence.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Central truth

The purpose of Proverbs and Wisdom's first call.

Wisdom truth

In Proverbs 1, wisdom is moral skill under the fear of the LORD, not merely intelligence or practical cleverness.

Fear truth

In Proverbs 1, the fear of the LORD places all other decisions under reverence for God and His truth.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Wisdom connection

James 3:13-18 distinguishes heavenly wisdom from envy-driven earthly wisdom. This connection helps frame Proverbs 1.

Fear connection

Ecclesiastes 12:13 also places fearing God at the center of faithful life. This connection helps frame Proverbs 1.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep wisdom in context

Do not read Proverbs 1 as a set of magic formulas. Proverbs trains wise judgment in the ordinary moral order God established.

Keep fear in context

The fear of the LORD in Proverbs 1 is reverent submission to God, not terror that a saved person must maintain in order to keep eternal life.

Read Proverbs 1 watching for…

purpose of proverbs.

fear of LORD.

sinners entice.

consent thou not.

Wisdom cries in streets.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-6The purpose of Proverbs is to give wisdom, instruction, understanding, and discretion 7-9The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; receive godly instruction 10-19Do not consent when sinners entice you to violence and dishonest gain 20-33Wisdom cries openly and warns that rejecting correction brings calamity

The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;

To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;

To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

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Proverbs 1:13

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