Prologue: Exhortations to Embrace Wisdom

Warning Against the Invitation of Sinful Men

Listen, my son,(A) to your father’s(B) instruction
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.(C)

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My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

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15 Drink water from your own cistern,
    running water from your own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets,
    your streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone,
    never to be shared with strangers.
18 May your fountain(A) be blessed,
    and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.(B)
19 A loving doe, a graceful deer(C)
    may her breasts satisfy you always,
    may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
20 Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife?
    Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?

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15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.

18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

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Warning Against Adultery

20 My son,(A) keep your father’s command
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.(B)
21 Bind them always on your heart;
    fasten them around your neck.(C)
22 When you walk, they will guide you;
    when you sleep, they will watch over you;
    when you awake, they will speak to you.

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20 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

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A wife of noble character(A) is her husband’s crown,
    but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.(B)

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A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.

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24 Whoever spares the rod(A) hates their children,
    but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline(B) them.(C)

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24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

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14 The wise woman builds her house,(A)
    but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.

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14 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

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Children’s children(A) are a crown to the aged,
    and parents are the pride of their children.

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Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.

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22 He who finds a wife finds what is good(A)
    and receives favor from the Lord.(B)

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22 Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.

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Start(A) children off on the way they should go,(B)
    and even when they are old they will not turn from it.(C)

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Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

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15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
    but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.(A)

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15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

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Saying 13

13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;
    if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.
14 Punish them with the rod
    and save them from death.(A)

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13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

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Saying 21

By wisdom a house is built,(A)
    and through understanding it is established;

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Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:

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15 A rod and a reprimand impart wisdom,
    but a child left undisciplined disgraces its mother.(A)

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15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

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