13 If I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such ^[a]as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

² And if I have prophetic powers (^[b]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).

³ Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or ^[c]in order that I may glory, but have not love (God’s love in me), I gain nothing.

⁴ Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

⁵ It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

⁶ It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

⁷ Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].

⁸ Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (^[d]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].

⁹ For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect).

¹⁰ But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded).

¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.

¹² For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as ^[e]in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand ^[f]fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been ^[g]fully and clearly known and understood [^[h]by God].

¹³ And so faith, hope, love abide [faith—conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope—joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love—true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.

23 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider who and what are before you;

² For you will put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to desire.

³ Be not desirous of his dainties, for it is deceitful food [offered with questionable motives].

⁴ Weary not yourself to be rich; cease from your own [human] wisdom.^(A)

⁵ Will you set your eyes upon wealth, when [suddenly] it is gone? For riches certainly make themselves wings, like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

⁶ Eat not the bread of him who has a hard, grudging, and envious eye, neither desire his dainty foods;

⁷ For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. As one who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink, yet his heart is not with you [but is grudging the cost].

⁸ The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up, and your complimentary words will be wasted.

⁹ Speak not in the ears of a [self-confident] fool, for he will despise the [godly] Wisdom of your words.^(B)

¹⁰ Remove not the ancient landmark and enter not into the fields of the fatherless,^(C)

¹¹ For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you.

¹² Apply your mind to instruction and correction and your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³ Withhold not discipline from the child; for if you strike and punish him with the [reedlike] rod, he will not die.

¹⁴ You shall whip him with the rod and deliver his life from Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead).

¹⁵ My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will be glad, even mine;

¹⁶ Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord all the day long.

¹⁸ For surely there is a latter end [a future and a reward], and your hope and expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way [of the Lord].

²⁰ Do not associate with winebibbers; be not among them nor among gluttonous eaters of meat,^(D)

²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

²² Hearken to your father, who begot you, and despise not your mother when she is old.

²³ Buy the truth and sell it not; not only that, but also get discernment and judgment, instruction and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the [uncompromisingly] righteous (the upright, in right standing with God) shall greatly rejoice, and he who becomes the father of a wise child shall have joy in him.

²⁵ Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶ My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe and delight in my ways,

²⁷ For a harlot is a deep ditch, and a loose woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸ She also lies in wait as a robber or as one waits for prey, and she increases the treacherous among men.

²⁹ Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness and dimness of eyes?

³⁰ Those who tarry long at the wine, those who go to seek and try mixed wine.^(E)

³¹ Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the wineglass, when it goes down smoothly.

³² At the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.

³³ [Under the influence of wine] your eyes will behold strange things [and loose women] and your mind will utter things turned the wrong way [untrue, incorrect, and petulant].

³⁴ Yes, you will be [as unsteady] as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, and [as open to disaster] as he who lies upon the top of a mast.

³⁵ You will say, They struck me, but I was not hurt! They beat me [as with a hammer], but I did not feel it! When shall I awake? I will crave and seek more wine again [and escape reality].