Proverbs
4
1
Listen, children, to a father's instruction, and pay attention so that you may gain discernment.
2
Because I give you good instruction, do not forsake my teaching.
3
When I was a son to my father, a tender only child before my mother,
4
he taught me, and he said to me: "Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands so that you will live.
5
Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding; do not forget and do not turn aside from the words I speak.
6
Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will guard you.
7
Wisdom is supreme - so acquire wisdom, and whatever you acquire, acquire understanding!
8
Esteem her highly and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.
9
She will place a fair garland on your head; she will bestow a beautiful crown on you."
10
Listen, my child, and accept my words, so that the years of your life will be many.
11
I will guide you in the way of wisdom and I will lead you in upright paths.
12
When you walk, your steps will not be hampered, and when you run, you will not stumble.
13
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; protect it, because it is your life.
14
Do not enter the path of the wicked or walk in the way of those who are evil.
15
Avoid it, do not go on it; turn away from it, and go on.
16
For they cannot sleep unless they cause harm; they are robbed of sleep until they make someone stumble.
17
For they eat bread gained from wickedness and drink wine obtained from violence.
18
But the path of the righteous is like the bright morning light, growing brighter and brighter until full day.
19
The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness; they do not know what causes them to stumble.
20
My child, pay attention to my words; listen attentively to my sayings.
21
Do not let them depart from your sight, guard them within your heart;
22
for they are life to those who find them and healing to one's entire body.
23
Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it are the sources of life.
24
Remove perverse speech from your mouth; keep devious talk far from your lips.
25
Let your eyes look directly in front of you and let your gaze look straight before you.
26
Make the path for your feet level, so that all your ways may be established.
27
Do not turn to the right or to the left; turn yourself away from evil.
5
1
My child, be attentive to my wisdom, pay close attention to my understanding,
2
in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge.
3
For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil,
4
but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5
Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.
6
Lest she should make level the path leading to life, her paths are unstable but she does not know it.
7
So now, children, listen to me; do not turn aside from the words I speak.
8
Keep yourself far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
9
lest you give your vigor to others and your years to a cruel person,
10
lest strangers devour your strength, and your labor benefit another man's house.
11
And at the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are wasted away.
12
And you will say, "How I hated discipline! My heart spurned reproof!
13
For I did not obey my teachers and I did not heed my instructors.
14
I almost came to complete ruin in the midst of the whole congregation!"
15
Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well.
16
Should your springs be dispersed outside, your streams of water in the wide plazas?
17
Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
18
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in your young wife -
19
a loving doe, a graceful deer; may her breasts satisfy you at all times, may you be captivated by her love always.
20
But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a different woman?
21
For the ways of a person are in front of the LORD's eyes, and the LORD weighs all that person's paths.
22
The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities, and he will be held by the cords of his own sin.
23
He will die because there was no discipline; because of the greatness of his folly he will reel.
6
1
My child, if you have made a pledge for your neighbor, and have become a guarantor for a stranger,
2
if you have been ensnared by the words you have uttered, and have been caught by the words you have spoken,
3
then, my child, do this in order to deliver yourself, because you have fallen into your neighbor's power: go, humble yourself, and appeal firmly to your neighbor.
4
Permit no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.
5
Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare, and like a bird from the trap of the fowler.
6
Go to the ant, you sluggard; observe its ways and be wise!
7
It has no commander, overseer, or ruler,
8
yet it prepares its food in the summer; it gathers at the harvest what it will eat.
9
How long, you sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from your sleep?
10
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to relax,
11
and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man.
12
A worthless and wicked person walks around saying perverse things;
13
he winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, and points with his fingers;
14
he plots evil with perverse thoughts in his heart, he spreads contention at all times.
15
Therefore, his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.
16
There are six things that the LORD hates, even seven things that are an abomination to him:
17
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18
a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift to run to evil,
19
a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who spreads discord among family members.
20
My child, guard the commands of your father and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.
21
Bind them on your heart continually; fasten them around your neck.
22
When you walk about, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will talk to you.
23
For the commandments are like a lamp, instruction is like a light, and rebukes of discipline are like the road leading to life,
24
by keeping you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the loose woman.
25
Do not lust in your heart for her beauty, and do not let her captivate you with her alluring eyes;
26
for on account of a prostitute one is brought down to a loaf of bread, but the wife of another man preys on your precious life.
27
Can a man hold fire against his chest without burning his clothes?
28
Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?
29
So it is with the one who has sex with his neighbor's wife; no one who touches her will escape punishment.
30
People do not despise a thief when he steals to fulfill his need when he is hungry.
31
Yet if he is caught he must repay seven times over, he might even have to give all the wealth of his house.
32
A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks wisdom, whoever does it destroys his own life.
33
He will be beaten and despised, and his reproach will not be wiped away;
34
for jealousy kindles a husband's rage, and he will not show mercy when he takes revenge.
35
He will not consider any compensation; he will not be willing, even if you multiply the compensation.
7
1
My child, keep my words and treasure up my commands in your own keeping.
2
Keep my commands so that you may live, and obey my instruction as your most prized possession.
3
Bind them on your forearm; write them on the tablet of your heart.
4
Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call understanding a close relative,
5
so that they may keep you from the adulterous woman, from the loose woman who flatters you with her words.
6
For at the window of my house through my window lattice I looked out
7
and I saw among the naive - I discerned among the youths - a young man who lacked wisdom.
8
He was passing by the street near her corner, making his way along the road to her house
9
in the twilight, the evening, in the dark of the night.
10
Suddenly a woman came out to meet him! She was dressed like a prostitute and with secret intent.
11
(She is loud and rebellious, she does not remain at home -
12
at one time outside, at another in the wide plazas, and by every corner she lies in wait.)
13
So she grabbed him and kissed him, and with a bold expression she said to him,
14
"I have fresh meat at home; today I have fulfilled my vows!
15
That is why I came out to meet you, to look for you, and I found you!
16
I have spread my bed with elegant coverings, with richly colored fabric from Egypt.
17
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18
Come, let's drink deeply of lovemaking until morning, let's delight ourselves with sexual intercourse.
19
For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a journey of some distance.
20
He has taken a bag of money with him; he will not return until the end of the month."
21
She persuaded him with persuasive words; with her smooth talk she compelled him.
22
Suddenly he went after her like an ox that goes to the slaughter, like a stag prancing into a trapper's snare
23
till an arrow pierces his liver - like a bird hurrying into a trap, and he does not know that it will cost him his life.
24
So now, sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words I speak.
25
Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways - do not wander into her pathways;
26
for she has brought down many fatally wounded, and all those she has slain are many.
27
Her house is the way to the grave, going down to the chambers of death.
8
1
Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?
Text used with permission – http://bible.org/
Notes
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Verse set info
Put together by Tess.
Created on May 28, 2015.
Created on May 28, 2015.
Status
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