Proverbs 4
1 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend that you may know prudence.
2 For I give you sound teaching; do not abandon my directive.
I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law.
3 When I was a son to my father, tender and the only child of my mother,
For I also was my father’s son, tender and as an only son in the sight of my mother:
4 he taught me and said, “Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands and you will live.
And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live.
5 Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn from them.
Get wisdom, get prudence: forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you.
Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee.
7 Wisdom is supreme; so acquire wisdom. And whatever you may acquire, gain understanding.
The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence.
8 Prize her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.
Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.
9 She will set a garland of grace on your head; she will present you with a crown of beauty.”
She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown.
10 Listen, my son, and receive my words, and the years of your life will be many.
Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee.
11 I will guide you in the way of wisdom; I will lead you on straight paths.
I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity:
12 When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; when you run, you will not stumble.
Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest thou shalt not meet a stumblingblock.
13 Hold on to instruction; do not let go. Guard it, for it is your life.
Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life.
14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers.
Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee.
15 Avoid it; do not travel on it. Turn from it and pass on by.
Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
For they sleep not except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.
18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.
But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day.
19 But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.
The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall.
20 My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings.
21 Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.
Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart:
22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.
For they are life to those that find them, and health to all flesh.
23 Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.
With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.
24 Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech.
Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee.
25 Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.
Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.
26 Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.
Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established.
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil.
Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knoweth the ways that are on the right hand: but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But he will make thy courses straight, he will bring forward thy ways in peace.
