Beginning
An Address to Sons:
Your Parents Teach You Wisdom
4 Listen, you sons, to a father’s discipline.
Pay attention so that you will gain discernment,
2 because I have given you good instruction.
Do not abandon my teaching.
3 When I was a son living with my father,
a tender and only child with my mother,
4 he used to instruct me and say to me,
“Cling to my words with all your heart.
Obey my commands so that you may live.
5 Acquire wisdom. Acquire understanding.
Do not forget,
and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not abandon it, and it will watch over you.
Love it and it will guard you.”
7 The beginning of wisdom is to obtain Wisdom.
Give up everything you have, in order to gain Understanding.
8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you.
She will honor you when you embrace her.
9 She will set a garland of grace on your head.
She will present you with a beautiful crown.
Fifth Address to a Son:
The Difference Between the Wicked and the Righteous
10 Listen, my son, and accept my words,
so that the years of your life will be many.
11 I have instructed you in the way of wisdom.
I have led you along straight paths.[a]
12 When you walk, your stride will not be hindered.
Even if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Hold on to discipline. Do not let go.
Guard it, because it is your life.
14 Do not travel on the path of the wicked.
Do not walk in the way of evil people.
15 Avoid it! Do not travel on it!
Turn away from it. Pass it by.
16 For they cannot sleep
unless they have been doing wrong,
and they are robbed of sleep
unless they are making someone stumble,
17 because wickedness is the food they eat,
and violence is the wine they drink.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
shining brighter and brighter until it is day.
19 The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness.
They never know where they will stumble.
Sixth Address to a Son:
Advice for a Righteous Life
20 My son, pay attention to my words.
Open your ears to what I say.
21 Do not let them escape from your sight.
Keep them deep in your heart,
22 because they are life for those who find them
and healing for the entire body.[b]
23 Above all else, guard your heart carefully,
because your life flows from it.
24 Turn your mouth away from perverted speech,
and keep devious lips far away from you.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead.
Let your gaze[c] be directly in front of you.
26 Make a level pathway for your feet,
and all your ways will be secure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left.
Turn your feet away from evil.
Seventh Address to a Son:
Wisdom Teaches You to Avoid Adultery
5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
Open your ears to my understanding,
2 so that you may hold on to insight,
so your lips may guard knowledge,
3 because the lips of an immoral woman drip with honey,
and her words are[d] as smooth as olive oil,
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood[e]
and as sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death.
Her steps lead to hell.[f]
6 She gives no thought to the path of life.[g]
Her ways wander, but she doesn’t realize it.
7 Now, you sons, listen to me.
Do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her.
Do not go near the doorway of her house.
9 If you do, you will give your wealth to others
and your years to a cruel person.
10 If you do, your work will satisfy strangers,
and the results of your labor will end up in another man’s house.
11 You will groan when your end comes,
when your body and flesh are consumed.
12 Then you will say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,
and my heart despised warnings!
13 I did not listen to my teachers’ voices,
and I did not open my ears to hear my instructors.
14 I soon[h] reached total ruin
in the midst of the assembly of the community.”
Encouragement to Faithfulness in Marriage
15 Drink water from your own cistern.
Drink running water from your own well.
16 Why should the water from your springs flow out into the street,
your streams of water into the public squares?
17 They should be yours, yours alone.
They are not for strangers to share with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed.
Obtain your joy from the wife you married in your youth,
19 who is a loving doe and a graceful deer.
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times.
Always be intoxicated with her love.
20 Why should you be led astray, my son, by an immoral woman?
Why embrace a woman who is not your wife?
21 For the ways of a man are in front of the eyes of the Lord,
and he weighs all of his paths.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked man will capture him,
and he will be bound by the ropes of his sin.
23 He will die for lack of discipline,
and he will go astray because of his great stupidity.
Eighth Address to a Son:
Wisdom Avoids Entanglements
6 My son, if you have guaranteed your neighbor’s debts,
if you have shaken hands for a stranger,
2 you are trapped by the promises from your mouth;
you are captured by the promises from your mouth.
3 Because you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands,
go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor.
4 Do not allow your eyes to sleep,
or your eyelids to slumber.
5 Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of a hunter,
or like a bird from the hand of a trapper.
Wisdom Warns Against Laziness
6 Go to the ant, you slacker![i]
Observe its ways and become wise.
7 Although it has no overseer, officer, or ruler,
8 it stores its food in summer.
It gathers its provisions at harvest time.
9 How long will you lie there, you slacker?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of your hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come on you like a prowler,
and scarcity will come on you like a warrior.
Dishonesty Leads to Disaster
12 A worthless, wicked scoundrel,
who goes around with a corrupt mouth,
13 who winks with his eye, signals with his foot,
and gestures with his fingers,
14 who plots evil with a deceitful heart—
he always spreads conflict.
15 Therefore his disaster will come upon him suddenly.
All at once he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.
Things That Are Disgusting to the Lord
16 These are six things the Lord hates,
seven things that really disgust him:
17 arrogant eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that run quickly to do evil,
19 a false witness who breathes lies,
and a person who spreads conflict between brothers.
Ninth Address to a Son:
Avoid Sexual Immorality
20 My son, keep your father’s commands,
and do not forsake your mother’s teachings.
21 Fasten them permanently to your heart,
and tie them around your neck.
22 When you walk around, they will lead you.
When you lie down, they will stand guard over you.
When you wake up, they will converse with you,
23 because a command is a lamp, teaching is a light,
and the warnings given by discipline are a road to life.
24 They guard you from an evil woman,
from the smooth tongue of a woman who is not your wife.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart.
Do not let her captivate you with her eyes.
26 A prostitute costs you a loaf of bread,
but a married woman stalks your precious life.
27 Can a man place fire on his lap
without burning his clothes?
28 Can a man walk on hot coals
without scorching his feet?
29 So it is with the man who goes to his neighbor’s wife.
No one who touches her will be forgiven.
30 No one despises a thief when he steals
to satisfy his hunger when he is starving,
31 but when he is caught, he will have to repay seven times as much.
He will have to give up all the wealth of his house.
32 Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks sense.
He who does it destroys himself.
33 He will find disease and dishonor,
and his disgrace will never be wiped out,
34 because jealousy ignites a husband’s anger,
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
35 He will not accept any amount as a payment.
He will not relent, even if you increase your offer.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.