The Enticement of Sinners

(A)Hear, my son, your father's instruction,
    and forsake not your mother's teaching,
for they are (B)a graceful garland for your head
    and (C)pendants for your neck.

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Avoid the Path of the Violent

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction,
and don’t reject your mother’s teaching,(A)
for they will be a garland(B) of favor on your head
and pendants[a] around your neck.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 1:9 Lit chains

A Father's Wise Instruction

(A)Hear, O sons, a father's instruction,
    and be attentive, that you may (B)gain[a] insight,
for I give you good (C)precepts;
    do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son with my father,
    (D)tender, (E)the only one in the sight of my mother,
he (F)taught me and said to me,
(G)“Let your heart hold fast my words;
    (H)keep my commandments, and live.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 4:1 Hebrew know

A Father’s Example

Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline,(A)
and pay attention so that you may gain understanding,
for I am giving you good instruction.(B)
Don’t abandon my teaching.
When I was a son with my father,
tender and precious to my mother,
he taught me and said,
“Your heart must hold on to my words.
Keep my commands and live.(C)

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The Proverbs of Solomon

10 (A)The proverbs of Solomon.

(B)A wise son makes a glad father,
    (C)but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

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A Collection of Solomon’s Proverbs

10 Solomon’s proverbs:(A)

A wise son brings joy to his father,
but a foolish son, heartache to his mother.(B)

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29 Whoever (A)troubles his own household will (B)inherit the wind,
    and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.

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29 The one who brings ruin on his household(A)
will inherit the wind,(B)
and a fool will be a slave
to someone whose heart is wise.

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20 (A)A wise son makes a glad father,
    but a foolish man despises his mother.

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20 A wise son brings joy to his father,
but a foolish man despises his mother.(A)

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A servant who deals wisely will rule over (A)a son who acts shamefully
    and (B)will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.

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A prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son
and share an inheritance among brothers.

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(A)Grandchildren are (B)the crown of the aged,
    and the glory of children is their fathers.

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Grandchildren are the crown of the elderly,
and the pride of children is their fathers.

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21 He who (A)sires a fool gets himself sorrow,
    and the father of a fool has no joy.

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21 A man fathers a fool to his own sorrow;
the father of a fool has no joy.(A)

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25 (A)A foolish son is a grief to his father
    (B)and bitterness to (C)her who bore him.

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25 A foolish son is grief to his father
and bitterness to the one who bore him.(A)

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13 (A)A foolish son is ruin to his father,
    and (B)a wife's quarreling is (C)a continual dripping of rain.

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13 A foolish son is his father’s ruin,(A)
and a wife’s nagging is an endless dripping.(B)

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26 He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother
    is (A)a son who brings shame and reproach.

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26 The one who plunders his father and evicts his mother
is a disgraceful and shameful son.

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20 (A)If one curses his father or his mother,
    (B)his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.

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20 Whoever curses his father or mother(A)
his lamp will go out in deep darkness.(B)

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