Chronological
4 Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father, and pay attention in order to gain and to know intelligent discernment, comprehension, and interpretation [of spiritual matters].
2 For I give you good doctrine [what is to be received]; do not forsake my teaching.
3 When I [Solomon] was a son with my father [David], tender and the only son in the sight of my mother [Bathsheba],
4 He taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live.(A)
5 Get skillful and godly Wisdom, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation); do not forget and do not turn back from the words of my mouth.
6 Forsake not [Wisdom], and she will keep, defend, and protect you; love her, and she will guard you.
7 The beginning of Wisdom is: get Wisdom (skillful and godly Wisdom)! [For skillful and godly Wisdom is the principal thing.] And with all you have gotten, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation).(B)
8 Prize Wisdom highly and exalt her, and she will exalt and promote you; she will bring you to honor when you embrace her.
9 She shall give to your head a wreath of gracefulness; a crown of beauty and glory will she deliver to you.
10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life shall be many.
11 I have taught you in the way of skillful and godly Wisdom [which is comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God]; I have led you in paths of uprightness.
12 When you walk, your steps shall not be hampered [your path will be clear and open]; and when you run, you shall not stumble.
13 Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
15 Avoid it, do not go on it; turn from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they have caused trouble or vexation; their sleep is taken away unless they have caused someone to fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the [uncompromisingly] just and righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines more and more (brighter and clearer) until [it reaches its full strength and glory in] the perfect day [to be prepared].(C)
19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.(D)
20 My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh.
23 Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.
24 Put away from you false and dishonest speech, and willful and contrary talk put far from you.
25 Let your eyes look right on [with fixed purpose], and let your gaze be straight before you.
26 Consider well the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established and ordered aright.
27 Turn not aside to the right hand or to the left; remove your foot from evil.
5 My son, be attentive to my Wisdom [godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience], and incline your ear to my understanding [of what is becoming and prudent for you],
2 That you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer [to temptation].
3 For the lips of a loose woman drip honey as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil;(E)
4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged and devouring sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead).
6 She loses sight of and walks not in the path of life; her ways wind about aimlessly, and you cannot know them.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Let your way in life be far from her, and come not near the door of her house [avoid the very scenes of temptation],(F)
9 Lest you give your honor to others and your years to those without mercy,
10 Lest strangers [and false teachings] take their fill of your strength and wealth and your labors go to the house of an alien [from God]—
11 And you groan and mourn when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 And you say, How I hated instruction and discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor submitted and consented to those who instructed me.
14 [The extent and boldness of] my sin involved almost all evil [in the estimation] of the congregation and the community.
15 [a]Drink waters out of your own cistern [of a pure marriage relationship], and fresh running waters out of your own well.
16 Should your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the streets?
17 [Confine yourself to your own wife] let your children be for you alone, and not the children of strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain [of human life] be blessed [with the rewards of fidelity], and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant doe [tender, gentle, attractive]—let her bosom satisfy you at all times, and always be transported with delight in her love.
20 Why should you, my son, be infatuated with a loose woman, embrace the bosom of an outsider, and go astray?
21 For the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the Lord, and He [Who would have us live soberly, chastely, and godly] carefully weighs all man’s goings.(G)
22 His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin.
23 He will die for lack of discipline and instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray and be lost.
6 My son, if you have become security for your neighbor, if you have given your pledge for a stranger or another,
2 You are snared with the words of your lips, you are caught by the speech of your mouth.
3 Do this now [at once and earnestly], my son, and deliver yourself when you have put yourself into the [b]power of your neighbor; go, bestir and humble yourself, and beg your neighbor [to pay his debt and thereby release you].
4 Give not [unnecessary] sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids;
5 Deliver yourself, as a roe or gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise!—(H)
7 Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
8 Provides her food in the summer and gathers her supplies in the harvest.
9 How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?(I)
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down and sleep—
11 So will your poverty come like a robber or one who travels [with slowly but surely approaching steps] and your want like an armed man [making you helpless].(J)
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, is he who goes about with a perverse (contrary, wayward) mouth.
13 He winks with his eyes, he speaks by shuffling or tapping with his feet, he makes signs [to mislead and deceive] and teaches with his fingers.
14 Willful and contrary in his heart, he devises trouble, vexation, and evil continually; he lets loose discord and sows it.
15 Therefore upon him shall the crushing weight of calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken, and that without remedy.
16 These six things the Lord hates, indeed, seven are an abomination to Him:
17 A proud look [the spirit that makes one overestimate himself and underestimate others], a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,(K)
18 A heart that manufactures wicked thoughts and plans, feet that are swift in running to evil,
19 A false witness who breathes out lies [even under oath], and he who sows discord among his brethren.
20 My son, keep your father’s [God-given] commandment and forsake not the law of [God] your mother [taught you].(L)
21 Bind them continually upon your heart and tie them about your neck.(M)
22 When you go, they [the words of your parents’ God] shall lead you; when you sleep, they shall keep you; and when you waken, they shall talk with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the whole teaching [of the law] is light, and reproofs of discipline are the way of life,(N)
24 To keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a loose woman.
25 Lust not after her beauty in your heart, neither let her capture you with her eyelids.
26 For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress stalks and snares [as with a hook] the precious life [of a man].
27 Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?
29 So he who cohabits with his neighbor’s wife [will be tortured with evil consequences and just retribution]; he who touches her shall not be innocent or go unpunished.
30 Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry;
31 But if he is found out, he must restore seven times [what he stole]; he must give the whole substance of his house [if necessary—to meet his fine].
32 But whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks heart and understanding (moral principle and prudence); he who does it is destroying his own life.
33 Wounds and disgrace will he get, and his reproach will not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy makes [the wronged] man furious; therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance [upon the detected one].
35 He will not consider any ransom [offered to buy him off from demanding full punishment]; neither will he be satisfied, though you offer him many gifts and bribes.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation