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 Exhortation: Acquire Wisdom

My child,[a] listen when your father corrects you.
    Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.
What you learn from them will crown you with grace
    and be a chain of honor around your neck.

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Footnotes

  1. 1:8 Hebrew My son; also in 1:10, 15.

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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A Father’s Wise Advice

My children,[a] listen when your father corrects you.
    Pay attention and learn good judgment,
for I am giving you good guidance.
    Don’t turn away from my instructions.
For I, too, was once my father’s son,
    tenderly loved as my mother’s only child.

My father taught me,
“Take my words to heart.
    Follow my commands, and you will live.

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Footnotes

  1. 4:1 Hebrew My sons.

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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The Proverbs of Solomon

10 The proverbs of Solomon:

A wise child[a] brings joy to a father;
    a foolish child brings grief to a mother.

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Footnotes

  1. 10:1 Hebrew son; also in 10:1b.

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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29 Those who bring trouble on their families inherit the wind.
    The fool will be a servant to the wise.

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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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20 Sensible children bring joy to their father;
    foolish children despise their mother.

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

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A wise servant will rule over the master’s disgraceful son
    and will share the inheritance of the master’s children.

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

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Grandchildren are the crowning glory of the aged;
    parents[a] are the pride of their children.

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Footnotes

  1. 17:6 Hebrew fathers.

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

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21 It is painful to be the parent of a fool;
    there is no joy for the father of a rebel.

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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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25 Foolish children[a] bring grief to their father
    and bitterness to the one who gave them birth.

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Footnotes

  1. 17:25 Hebrew A foolish son.

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

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13 A foolish child[a] is a calamity to a father;
    a quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping.

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Footnotes

  1. 19:13 Hebrew son; also in 19:27.

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

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26 Children who mistreat their father or chase away their mother
    are an embarrassment and a public disgrace.

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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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20 If you insult your father or mother,
    your light will be snuffed out in total darkness.

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