Proverbs 4
1 Hear, you children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend that you may know prudence.
2 For I give you a good gift; forsake you not my law.
I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law.
3 For I also was a son obedient to [my] father, and loved in the sight of [my] mother:
For I also was my father’s son, tender and as an only son in the sight of my mother:
4 who spoke and instructed me, [saying], Let our speech be fixed in your heart, keep [our] commandments, forget them not:
And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live.
5 and do not neglect the speech of my mouth.
Get wisdom, get prudence: forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.
6 And forsake it not, and it shall cleave to you: love it, and it shall keep you.
Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee.
The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence.
8 Secure it, and it shall exalt you: honor it, that it may embrace you;
Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.
9 that it may give to your head a crown of graces, and may cover you with a crown of delight.
She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown.
10 Hear, [my] son, and receive my words; and the years of your life shall be increased, that the resources of your life may be many.
Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee.
11 For I teach you the ways of wisdom; and I cause you to go in right paths.
I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity:
12 For when you go, your steps shall not be straitened; and when you run, you shall not be distressed.
Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest thou shalt not meet a stumblingblock.
13 Take hold of my instruction; let it not go, —but keep it for yourself for your life.
Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life.
14 Go not in the ways of the ungodly, neither covet the ways of transgressors.
Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee.
15 In whatever place they shall pitch their camp, go not there; but turn from them, and pass away.
Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it.
16 For they can’t sleep, unless they have done evil: their sleep is taken away, and they rest not.
For they sleep not except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall.
17 For these live upon the bread of ungodliness, and are drunken with wine of transgression.
They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.
18 But the ways of the righteous shine like light; they go on and shine, until the day be fully come.
But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day.
19 But the ways of the ungodly are dark; they know not how they stumble.
The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall.
20 [My] son, attend to my speech; and apply your ear to my words:
My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings.
21 that your fountains may not fail you; keep them in [your] heart.
Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart:
22 For they are life to those that find them, and health to all [their] flesh.
For they are life to those that find them, and health to all flesh.
23 Keep your heart with the utmost care; for out of these are the issues of life.
With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.
24 Remove from you a froward mouth, and put far away from you unjust lips.
Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee.
25 Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids assent [to] just [things].
Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.
26 Make straight paths for your feet, and order your ways aright.
Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established.
27 Turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left, but turn away your foot from an evil way.
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.
