Beginning
Choose what is good and right
4 My children, listen to what your father teaches you. Listen carefully so that you understand what is right. 2 My teaching will help you, so do not refuse it.
3-4 My father taught me when I was a little boy. My mother loved me as her only child. My father said to me,
‘Think carefully about what I tell you.
If you obey my commands, you will live well.
5 Learn to be wise and to understand things properly.
Do not forget my teaching or turn away from it.
6 If you keep hold of wisdom, she will keep you safe.
She will protect you if you love her.[a]
7 Learn to be wise, because wisdom is the most important thing to have.
Make sure that you learn to understand things well.
8 Respect wisdom as very valuable, then she will make you great.
If you make her your friend, she will give you honour.
9 Wisdom will bless you, as if you are wearing a beautiful crown on your head.’
10 So listen to me, my child, and accept my teaching. If you do, the years of your life will be many.
11 I am teaching you to be wise, so that you will know the right way to live. 12 As you walk through life, nothing will stop you. Even when you run, you will not fall.
13 Keep hold of my teaching. Do not forget it. Keep it safe because it will give you a good life.
14 Do not join with wicked or evil people. Do not do the things that they do. 15 Keep away from them! Be sure to keep to your own good way of life.
16 Wicked people have to do evil things. They cannot go to sleep unless they have been cruel to someone that day. 17 Evil acts are their food. Violence is their drink.
18 The life of righteous people is like the sun at dawn. It gets brighter and brighter until midday. 19 But the life of wicked people is like a very dark road. They cannot even see what causes them to fall.
20 My child, listen carefully to my teaching and to everything that I tell you. 21 Never forget my words. Keep them safe in your mind. 22 They will give true life to anyone who takes hold of them. They will give health to your whole body.
23 Be very careful to keep your mind safe. The thoughts that you think make you the person that you are.
24 Never tell lies or try to deceive other people.
25 Look straight in front of you to see clearly where you are going. 26 Decide carefully where you are going in life. Then you will be on a good, safe path. 27 Do not walk off your path, to the right side or the left side. Keep away from everything that is evil.
Listen to wise teaching
5 My child, listen carefully to the wisdom that I teach you. I will teach you how to understand things well. 2 If you learn this, you will choose to do the right things in life. Your words will show that you are wise.
3 Do not listen to the words of an adulteress. She promises something as sweet as honey and as beautiful as olive oil. 4 But in the end, she gives you bitter food, like poison. She gives you pain like a sharp sword.[b]
5 She will lead you down to the place of death. You will follow her to your grave! 6 She does not think about the way that leads to true life. She has lost the right road but she does not understand what she is doing.
7 So listen to me, my children. Never forget what I am telling you.
8 Keep far away from a woman like that! Do not even go near the door of her house. 9 If you go with her, you will lose your honour. A cruel person will rob you of the best years of your life. 10 Strangers will take all your money. The good things that you have worked for will belong to someone else.
11 At the end of your life, you will weep with pain. Your body will be sick and weak. 12 You will say, ‘I should have listened when people warned me that I was doing bad things. 13 I did not listen to my teachers. I refused to obey them.
14 Now I will be completely ashamed when I meet together with all the people.’
Be faithful to your wife
15 You should enjoy your own wife, as you enjoy clean water to drink.
16 You would not pour your good water onto the streets. So do not waste your love on other women. 17 Keep it for you and your wife. Do not share it with other women.
18 Enjoy sex with your own wife. May the wife that you married when you were young continue to give you joy. 19 May she be as pretty and beautiful as a young deer. May her breasts always make you happy. May she love you in a way that gives you joy.
20 So my son, do not let an adulteress deceive you. Do not enjoy the body of another man's wife.
21 The Lord sees everything that a person does. He knows every path that you go along.
22 The sins of a wicked person will be the trap that catches him. They will hold him like strong ropes. 23 He cannot control his sins, so he will die. He will become lost, because he does such stupid things.
Dangerous things
6 My child, be careful not to promise more than you can really do. You may have promised to pay the debts of a friend or of a stranger. 2 Then what you have promised to do may become a trap that catches you.
3 Now you need to escape from your problem. Your friend has got power over you. So you must be humble. Go quickly to him and ask him to forgive the debt. 4 Do not let yourself sleep or even stop to rest until you have met with him. 5 You must make yourself free from the trap. Escape quickly, like a bird or a deer that runs away from a hunter.
6 Learn a lesson from the ants, you lazy person! See how hard they work. 7 They have no leader or ruler, 8 but they get their food during the summer. At the time of harvest they store food to prepare for winter.
9 But you, you lazy man, you lie in bed too long! Will you never get up to work? 10 You say, ‘I will have a short sleep. I will rest quietly for a while.’ 11 But while you sleep you will suddenly become poor. You will have nothing, as if someone has robbed you.
12 A useless, wicked person is always deceiving people. 13 He sends secret messages with his eyes, his feet or his fingers. 14 He uses evil thoughts to decide how he will hurt people. Wherever he goes, there is trouble.
15 Because of this, trouble will suddenly happen to him. It will knock him down and he will never get up again.
16 There are six things that the Lord hates, or even seven things:
17 Eyes that show how proud a person is.
A mouth that speaks lies.
Hands that kill people who have done nothing wrong.
18 A mind that chooses to do wicked things.
Feet that hurry to do evil things.
19 A person who tells lies in court.
A person who causes trouble in a family.
20 My child, obey your father's commands. Do not forget what your mother has taught you. 21 Keep their teaching in your thoughts. Keep it as near to you as a necklace that you wear.
22 Wherever you go in life, their words will be your guide. They will keep you safe while you sleep. When you wake up, they will teach you.
23 Their commands and their teaching are like a lamp that gives you light. When they warn you that you are doing wrong things, that helps you to live well.
24 They will keep you safe from any bad woman, so that the sweet words of an adulteress will not deceive you. 25 Do not keep thinking how beautiful her body is. Do not let her use her eyes like a trap to catch you.
26 If you sleep with a prostitute, that may cost the price of a meal. But if you sleep with another man's wife, you may pay with your life.
27 You cannot carry fire next to your body and not burn your clothes. 28 You cannot walk over hot pieces of coal and not burn your feet. 29 It is the same when a man has sex with another man's wife. Anyone who does that will receive punishment that hurts him.
30 People may excuse someone who steals food because he is hungry.[c] 31 But if someone catches him, he must pay back seven times what he took. He may lose everything that he has in his house.
32 But a man who sleeps with another man's wife is stupid. He is destroying his own life. 33 He deserves his punishment and shame. He will never stop being ashamed.
34 The woman's husband will be jealous, and he will become very angry. He will want the man to receive full punishment. 35 He will not accept any money or bribe to pay the debt, even if it is a lot of money.
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