Prologue: Exhortations to Embrace Wisdom

Warning Against the Invitation of Sinful Men

Listen, my son,(A) to your father’s(B) instruction
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.(C)
They are a garland to grace your head
    and a chain to adorn your neck.(D)

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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

Get Wisdom at Any Cost

Listen, my sons,(A) to a father’s instruction;(B)
    pay attention and gain understanding.(C)
I give you sound learning,
    so do not forsake my teaching.
For I too was a son to my father,
    still tender, and cherished by my mother.
Then he taught me, and he said to me,
    “Take hold(D) of my words with all your heart;
    keep my commands, and you will live.(E)

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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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Proverbs of Solomon

10 The proverbs(A) of Solomon:(B)

A wise son brings joy to his father,(C)
    but a foolish son brings grief 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 brings ruin on their family will inherit only wind,
    and the fool will be servant to the wise.(A)

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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 wise son brings joy to his father,(A)
    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 prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son
    and will share the inheritance as one of the family.

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

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Children’s children(A) are a crown to the aged,
    and parents are the pride of their children.

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

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21 To have a fool for a child brings grief;
    there is no joy for the parent of a godless fool.(A)

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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 foolish son brings grief to his father
    and bitterness to the mother who bore him.(A)

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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 foolish child is a father’s ruin,(A)
    and a quarrelsome wife is like
    the constant dripping of a leaky roof.(B)

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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 Whoever robs their father and drives out their mother(A)
    is a child who brings shame and disgrace.

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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 If someone curses their father or mother,(A)
    their lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.(B)

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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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