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Warnings against Evil Companions

Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,
    and do not reject your mother’s teaching,(A)
for they are a fair garland for your head
    and pendants for your neck.(B)

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Lecture Against Gang Behavior

My child, may you keep[a] your father’s instruction,
    and do not reject your mother’s teachings,
for they are a garland of favor for your head,
    and pendants for your neck.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 1:8 Or “obey,” or “hear”

Parental Advice

Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
    and be attentive, that you may gain[a] insight,(A)
for I give you good precepts:
    do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son with my father,
    tender and my mother’s favorite,(B)
he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
    keep my commandments and live.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 4.1 Heb know

The Father’s Wisdom

Children, listen to the instruction of a father,
    and be attentive in order to know insight.
For I have given you good instruction;
    do not forsake my teaching.
When I was a son to my father,
    tender and alone before my mother,
he taught me and said to me,
    “May your heart hold fast to my words;
    guard my commandments and live.

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Wise Sayings of Solomon

10 The proverbs of Solomon.

A wise child makes a glad father,
    but a foolish child is a mother’s grief.(A)

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Proverbs of Solomon

10 The proverbs of Solomon:
A wise child makes a father glad,
    but a foolish child grieves his mother.

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20 A wise child makes a glad father,
    but the foolish despise their mothers.(A)

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20 A child of wisdom will make a father glad,
    but a foolish person,[a] he despises his mother.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 15:20 Literally “foolishness of humankind”

21 The one who fathers a fool gets trouble;
    the parent of a fool has no joy.(A)

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21 He who begets a fool, there is trouble for him;
    the father of a fool will not rejoice.

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25 Foolish children are a grief to their father
    and bitterness to her who bore them.(A)

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25 A grief to his father is the child of a fool,
    and bitterness to her who bore him.

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26 Those who do violence to their father and chase away their mother
    are children who cause shame and bring reproach.

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26 He who does violence to a father, he who chases away a mother,
    is a child who causes shame and brings reproach.

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20 If you curse father or mother,
    your lamp will go out in utter darkness.(A)

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20 He who curses his father and his mother,
    his lamp will be extinguished in the midst of darkness.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 20:20 Literally “in a pupil of darkness”

11 There are those who curse their fathers
    and do not bless their mothers.(A)
12 There are those who are pure in their own eyes,
    yet are not cleansed of their filthiness.(B)

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11 There is a generation that will curse its father,
    and its mother it will not bless.
12 There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes,
    but from its filthiness it will not be cleansed.

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17 The eye that mocks a father
    and scorns to obey a mother
will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley
    and eaten by the vultures.(A)

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17 The eye that mocks a father
    and scorns the obedience of a mother—
the ravens of the valley will peck it out,
    and the offspring of vultures will eat it.

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