10 When wisdom enters your heart,
And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 Discretion will preserve you;
(A)Understanding will keep you,

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10 for wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul.[a]
11 Discretion will watch over you;
    understanding will protect you,

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:10 Or “inner self”

20 So you may walk in the way of goodness,
And keep to the paths of righteousness.

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20 So that you will walk on the road of those who are good,
    and the paths of those who are righteous you shall keep.

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14 (A)Do not enter the path of the wicked,
And do not walk in the way of evil.
15 Avoid it, do not travel on it;
Turn away from it and pass on.
16 (B)For they do not sleep unless they have done evil;
And their sleep is [a]taken away unless they make someone fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness,
And drink the wine of violence.

18 (C)But the path of the just (D)is like the shining [b]sun,
That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
19 (E)The way of the wicked is like darkness;
They do not know what makes them stumble.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 4:16 Lit. robbed
  2. Proverbs 4:18 Lit. light

14 In the path of the wicked do not go;
    do not walk in the way of those who do evil.
15 Avoid it; do not transgress it;
    turn away from it and pass by.
16 For they will not sleep if they have not done wrong,
    and they are robbed of their sleep if they do not cause stumbling.
17 For they ate the bread of wickedness,
    and they drank the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous ones is like the light of dawn,
    leading and shining until the day is full.[a]
19 The way of the wicked ones is like deep darkness;
    they do not know what they stumble over.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 4:18 Literally “is correct”

20 He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will be destroyed.

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20 Walk with the wise and be wise,
    but as for the companion of fools, he will suffer harm.

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28 A perverse man sows strife,
And (A)a whisperer separates the best of friends.

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28 A person of perversity will spread dissent,
    and he who whispers separates a close friend.

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12 Let a man meet (A)a bear robbed of her cubs,
Rather than a fool in his folly.

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12 May a man meet a she-bear robbed of offspring
    and not a fool in his folly.

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17 (A)A friend loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity.

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17 The friend loves at all times[a],
    but a brother is born for adversity.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 17:17 Hebrew “time”

24 A man who has friends [a]must himself be friendly,
(A)But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 18:24 So with Gr. mss., Syr., Tg., Vg.; MT may come to ruin

24 A man of many friends will come to ruin,
    but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

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(A)Wealth makes many friends,
But the poor is separated from his friend.

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Wealth adds many friends,
    but the poor will be left by his friends.

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Many entreat the favor of the nobility,
And every man is a friend to one who gives gifts.
(A)All the brothers of the poor hate him;
How much more do his friends go (B)far from him!
He may pursue them with words, yet they [a]abandon him.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 19:7 Lit. are not

Many will seek favor before the generous,
    and everyone is the friend of a man of gifts.[a]
All the brothers of the poor, if they hate him,
    how much more will his friends keep away from him.
    He pursues them with words, and they are gone.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 19:6 Hebrew “gift”
  2. Proverbs 19:7 Or “when he pursues words and not them”

19 (A)He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets;
Therefore do not associate with one (B)who flatters with his lips.

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19 He reveals a secret, he who walks about with gossip,
    and do not associate with a babbler’s lips.

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24 Make no friendship with an angry man,
And with a (A)furious man do not go,
25 Lest you learn his ways
And set a snare for your soul.

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24 Do not befriend an owner[a] of anger,[b]
    and with a man of wrath you shall not associate;
25 lest you learn his way
    and become entangled in a snare to yourself.[c]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 22:24 Or “master”
  2. Proverbs 22:24 Literally “nostril”
  3. Proverbs 22:25 Or “soul,” or “inner self”