The Father’s Wisdom

•  Children, listen to the instruction of a father,
  • and be attentive in order to know insight.
• 2 For I have given you good instruction;
  • do not forsake my teaching.
• 3 When I was a son to my father,
  • tender and alone before my mother,
• 4 he taught me and said to me,
  • “May your heart hold fast to my words;
  • guard my commandments and live.
• 5 Get wisdom and insight;
  • do not forget and do not turn from the sayings of my mouth.
• 6 Do not forsake her—then she will guard you;
  • love her and she will keep you.
• 7 The beginning of wisdom: Get wisdom!
  • With all that is in your possession, gain insight.
• 8 Cherish her and she will exalt you;
  • she will honor you if you embrace her.
• 9 She will give a garland for your head;
  • she shall bestow a crown of glory upon you.”
    

The Right Path

• 10 Listen, my child, take my sayings,
  • and the years of your life shall be great.
• 11 In the way of wisdom I have instructed you;
  • I have led you in the path of uprightness.
• 12 When you walk ,[fn] your step will not be hampered,
  • and if you run, you will not stumble.
• 13 Seize the instruction! Do not let go!
  • Guard her, for she is your life.
• 14 In the path of the wicked do not go;
  • do not walk in the way of those who do evil.
• 15 Avoid it; do not transgress it;
  • turn away from it and pass by.
• 16 For they will not sleep if they have not done wrong,
  • and they are robbed of their sleep if they do not cause stumbling.
• 17 For they ate the bread of wickedness,
  • and they drank the wine of violence.
• 18 But the path of the righteous ones is like the light of dawn,
  • leading and shining until the day is full .[fn]
• 19 The way of the wicked ones is like deep darkness;
  • they do not know what they stumble over.
    

Staying the Course

• 20 My child, be attentive to my words;
  • to my sayings incline your ear.
• 21 May they not escape from your sight ;[fn]
  • keep them in the midst of your heart.
• 22 For they are life to those who find them
  • and healing to the entire body .[fn]
• 23 With all vigilance, keep your heart,
  • for from it comes the source[fn] of life.
• 24 Remove from yourself deceitful speech ,[fn]
  • and abolish devious talk[fn] from yourself.
• 25 May your eyes look forward[fn]
  • and your gaze be straight before you.
• 26 May the path of your foot be balanced
  • and all your ways be sure.
• 27 Do not swerve right or left;
  • remove your foot from evil.
  
  
• 5 My child, be attentive to my wisdom,
  • and to my understanding incline your ear;
• 2 in order to keep prudence,
  • and knowledge will guard your lips.
• 3 For the lips of the strange woman will drip honey,
  • and smoother than oil is her mouth.[fn]
• 4 But her end is bitter as the wormwood,
  • sharp as a two-edged sword.
• 5 Her feet go down to death;
  • her steps take hold of Sheol.[fn]
• 6 She does not observe[fn] the path of life;
  • her ways wander, and she does not know it.
    

Do Not Commit Adultery Against Wisdom

• 7 Now, O children, listen to me;
  • do not depart from the sayings of my mouth.
• 8 Keep your paths far from her,
  • and do not go near to the door of her house,
• 9 lest you give your honor to the others,
  • and your years to the merciless,
• 10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
  • and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
• 11 and you groan at your end,
  • when your flesh and body are consumed,
• 12 and say “How I hated discipline,
  • and I despised reproof!”
• 13 and “I did not listen to the voice of my teachers,
  • and I did not incline my ear to my instructors!
• 14 I was almost at utter[fn] ruin[fn]
  • in the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
• 15 Drink water from your own cistern
  • and flowing waters from inside your own well.
• 16 Shall your springs be scattered outward?
  • In the streets, shall there be streams of water?
• 17 May they be yours alone,
  • and not for strangers who are with you.
• 18 May your fountain be blessed,
  • and rejoice in the wife[fn] of your youth.
• 19 She is a deer of love and a doe of grace;
  • may her breasts satisfy you always ;[fn]
  • by her love may you be intoxicated continually.
• 20 Why should you be intoxicated, my child, by a strange woman,
  • and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
• 21 For before the eyes of Yahweh are human ways ,[fn]
  • and all his paths he examines.
• 22 His iniquities shall ensnare him, the evildoer,
  • and in the vanity of his sin he shall be caught.
• 23 He shall die for lack of[fn] discipline,
  • and in the greatness of his folly he shall be lost.