Proverbs 4
1 Listen, sons, to a father's instruction, and pay attention so you will know what understanding is.
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend that you may know prudence.
2 I am giving you good instructions; do not forsake my teaching.
I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law.
3 When I was a son of my father, the tender and 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 to me, “Let your heart hold fast to my words; keep my commands and live.
And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live.
5 Acquire wisdom and understanding; do not forget and do not reject the words of my mouth;
Get wisdom, get prudence: forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.
6 do not abandon wisdom and she will watch over you; love her and she will keep you safe.
Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee.
7 Wisdom is the most important thing, so acquire wisdom and spend all you own so you can get understanding.
The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence.
8 Cherish wisdom and she will exalt you; she will honor you when you embrace her.
Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.
9 She will put a wreath of honor on your head; she will give you a beautiful crown.”
She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown.
10 Listen, my son, and pay attention to my words, and you will have many years in your life.
Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee.
11 I direct you in the way of wisdom; I lead you down straight paths.
I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity:
12 When you walk, no one will stand in your way and if 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 it 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 follow the path of the wicked and do not go along the way of those who do evil.
Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee.
15 Avoid it, do not go on it; turn away from it and go another way.
Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it.
16 For they cannot sleep until they do evil and they are robbed of sleep until they cause someone to stumble.
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 But the path of righteous people is like the first light that grows brighter; it shines more and more until the fullness of the day comes.
But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day.
19 The way of the wicked is like darkness— they do not know what it is they stumble over.
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 let them turn away from your eyes; keep them in your heart.
Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart:
22 For my words are life to those who find them and health to their whole body.
For they are life to those that find them, and health to all flesh.
23 Keep your heart safe and guard it with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.
With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.
24 Put crooked speech away from you and put corrupt talk far from you.
Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead and fix your gaze straight before you.
Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.
26 Make a level path for your foot; then all your ways will be secure.
Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established.
27 Do not turn aside to the right or to the left; turn your foot 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.
