Shun Evil Counsel

(A)My son, hear the instruction of your father,
And do not forsake the law of your mother;
For they will be a (B)graceful ornament on your head,
And chains about 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

Guidance for the Young

My son, do not forget my law,
(A)But let your heart keep my commands;
For length of days and long life
And (B)peace they will add to you.

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Trust the Lord

My son, don’t forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commands;(A)
for they will bring you
many days, a full life,[a](B) and well-being.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 3:2 Lit days, years of life

Security in Wisdom

Hear, (A)my children, the instruction of a father,
And give attention to know understanding;
For I give you good doctrine:
Do not forsake my law.
When I was my father’s son,
(B)Tender and the only one in the sight of my mother,
(C)He also taught me, and said to me:
“Let your heart retain my words;
(D)Keep my commands, and live.

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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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Wise Sayings of Solomon

10 The proverbs of (A)Solomon:

(B)A wise son makes a glad father,
But a foolish son is the grief of 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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22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
But (A)the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.

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22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his[a] grandchildren,
but the sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 13:22 Or inheritance: his

20 (A)A wise son makes a father glad,
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)Children’s children are the crown of old men,
And the glory of children is their father.

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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 begets a scoffer does so to his 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,
And bitterness to 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 the ruin of his father,
(B)And the contentions of a wife are a continual [a]dripping.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 19:13 Irritation

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

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18 (A)Chasten your son while there is hope,
And do not set your heart [a]on his destruction.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 19:18 Lit. to put him to death; a Jewish tradition on his crying

18 Discipline your son while there is hope;
don’t set your heart on being the cause of his death.[a](A)

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Footnotes

  1. 19:18 Lit don’t lift up your soul to his death

26 He who mistreats his father and chases away his mother
Is (A)a son who causes shame and brings 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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(A)The righteous man walks in his integrity;
(B)His children are blessed after him.

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A righteous person acts with integrity;(A)
his children who come after him will be happy.(B)

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