Moff PROV Chapter 4

4 

Listen, my children, to a father’s instruction,

attend and learn intelligence:

2 

I give you good counsel,

turn not from my teaching.

3 

When I was a son with my father,

a little one, loved by my mother,

4 

he taught me and told me this:

“Keep in mind what I say,

do what I bid you, and you shall live,

5 

swerve not from my orders.

Get sense, get knowledge,

7 

at any cost get knowledge--

6 

never leave her, and she will guard you,

love her, and she will take care of you,

8 

prize her, and she will promote you,

and bring you to honour, if you will embrace her,

9 

she will adorn you with charm

and crown you with glory.

10 

Listen, my son, take to heart what I say,

and the years of your life shall be many;

11 

I am giving you wise directions

and leading you aright;

12 

when you walk, you will never be hindered,

when you run, you will not slip.

13 

Hold fast to my instructions, never let them go,

keep them--they are life to you.

14 

Never set foot upon a bad man’s path,

and take not the road of evil men;

15 

avoid it, never follow it,

shun it, and pass on.

16 

For they cannot sleep till they have done some wrong,

till they have tripped up someone, they are sleepless;

17 

they eat ill-gotten food

and drink wine won by cruelty.

19 

The course of bad men lies through darkness dim,

they cannot see what makes them stumble;

18 

the course of good men, like a ray of dawn,

shines on and on to the full light of day.

20 

My son, attend to what I say,

bend your ear to my words;

21 

never lose sight of them,

but fix them in your mind;

22 

to those who find them, they are life,

and health to all their being.

23 

Guard above all things, guard your inner self,

for so you live and prosper;

24 

bar out all talk of evil,

and banish wayward words;

23 

let your eyes look straight ahead,

gaze right in front of you;

26 

keep a clear path before you,

and ever make your footing firm;

27 

never turn to right or left,

draw back from a wrong step.