Proverbs, starting at chapter 4
{4:1} Listen, sons, to a father's instruction.
Pay attention and know understanding;
{4:2} for I give you sound learning.
Don't forsake my law.
{4:3} For I was a son to my father,
tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.
{4:4} He taught me, and said to me:
"Let your heart retain my words.
Keep my commandments, and live.
{4:5} Get wisdom.
Get understanding.
Don't forget, neither swerve from the words of my mouth.
{4:6} Don't forsake her, and she will preserve you.
Love her, and she will keep you.
{4:7} Wisdom is supreme.
Get wisdom.
Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.
{4:8} Esteem her, and she will exalt you.
She will bring you to honor, when you embrace her.
{4:9} She will give to your head a garland of grace.
She will deliver a crown of splendor to you."
{4:10} Listen, my son, and receive my sayings.
The years of your life will be many.
{4:11} I have taught you in the way of wisdom.
I have led you in straight paths.
{4:12} When you go, your steps will not be hampered.
When you run, you will not stumble.
{4:13} Take firm hold of instruction.
Don't let her go.
Keep her, for she is your life.
{4:14} Don't enter into the path of the wicked.
Don't walk in the way of evil men.
{4:15} Avoid it, and don't pass by it.
Turn from it, and pass on.
{4:16} For they don't sleep, unless they do evil.
Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.
{4:17} For they eat the bread of wickedness,
and drink the wine of violence.
{4:18} But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light,
that shines more and more until the perfect day.
{4:19} The way of the wicked is like darkness.
They don't know what they stumble over.
{4:20} My son, attend to my words.
Turn your ear to my sayings.
{4:21} Let them not depart from your eyes.
Keep them in the midst of your heart.
{4:22} For they are life to those who find them,
and health to their whole body.
{4:23} Keep your heart with all diligence,
for out of it is the wellspring of life.
{4:24} Put away from yourself a perverse mouth.
Put corrupt lips far from you.
{4:25} Let your eyes look straight ahead.
Fix your gaze directly before you.
{4:26} Make the path of your feet level.
Let all of your ways be established.
{4:27} Don't turn to the right hand nor to the left.
Remove your foot from evil.
{5:1} My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
Turn your ear to my understanding:
{5:2} that you may maintain discretion,
that your lips may preserve knowledge.
{5:3} For the lips of an adulteress drip honey.
Her mouth is smoother than oil,
{5:4} But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood,
and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
{5:5} Her feet go down to death.
Her steps lead straight to [1>]Sheol[<1].
{5:6} She gives no thought to the way of life.
Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it.
{5:7} Now therefore, my sons, listen to me.
Don't depart from the words of my mouth.
{5:8} Remove your way far from her.
Don't come near the door of her house,
{5:9} lest you give your honor to others,
and your years to the cruel one;
{5:10} lest strangers feast on your wealth,
and your labors enrich another man's house.
{5:11} You will groan at your latter end,
when your flesh and your body are consumed,
{5:12} and say, "How I have hated instruction,
and my heart despised reproof;
{5:13} neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers,
nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
{5:14} I have come to the brink of utter ruin,
in the midst of the gathered assembly."
{5:15} Drink water out of your own cistern,
running water out of your own well.
{5:16} Should your springs overflow in the streets,
streams of water in the public squares?
{5:17} Let them be for yourself alone,
not for strangers with you.
{5:18} Let your spring be blessed.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
{5:19} A loving doe and a graceful deer--
let her breasts satisfy you at all times.
Be captivated always with her love.
{5:20} For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of another?
{5:21} For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD.
He examines all his paths.
{5:22} The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him.
The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
{5:23} He will die for lack of instruction.
In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
{6:1} My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor,
if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;
{6:2} You are trapped by the words of your mouth.
You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.
{6:3} Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself,
since you have come into the hand of your neighbor.
Go, humble yourself.
Press your plea with your neighbor.
{6:4} Give no sleep to your eyes,
nor slumber to your eyelids.
{6:5} Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
{6:6} Go to the ant, you sluggard.
Consider her ways, and be wise;
{6:7} which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
{6:8} provides her bread in the summer,
and gathers her food in the harvest.
{6:9} How long will you sleep, sluggard?
When will you arise out of your sleep?
{6:10} A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep:
{6:11} so your poverty will come as a robber,
and your scarcity as an armed man.
{6:12} A worthless person, a man of iniquity,
is he who walks with a perverse mouth;
{6:13} who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet,
who motions with his fingers;
{6:14} in whose heart is perverseness,
who devises evil continually,
who always sows discord.
{6:15} Therefore his calamity will come suddenly.
He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.
{6:16} There are six things which the LORD hates;
yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
{6:17} haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood;
{6:18} a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are swift in running to mischief,
{6:19} a false witness who utters lies,
and he who sows discord among brothers.
{6:20} My son, keep your father's commandment,
and don't forsake your mother's teaching.
{6:21} Bind them continually on your heart.
Tie them around your neck.
{6:22} When you walk, it will lead you.
When you sleep, it will watch over you.
When you awake, it will talk with you.
{6:23} For the commandment is a lamp,
and the Torah is light.
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
{6:24} to keep you from the immoral woman,
from the flattery of the wayward wife's tongue.
{6:25} Don't lust after her beauty in your heart,
neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.
{6:26} For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread.
The adulteress hunts for your precious life.
{6:27} Can a man scoop fire into his lap,
and his clothes not be burned?
{6:28} Or can one walk on hot coals,
and his feet not be scorched?
{6:29} So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife.
Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.
{6:30} Men don't despise a thief,
if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry:
{6:31} but if he is found, he shall restore seven times.
He shall give all the wealth of his house.
{6:32} He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding.
He who does it destroys his own soul.
{6:33} He will get wounds and dishonor.
His reproach will not be wiped away.
{6:34} For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband.
He won't spare in the day of vengeance.
{6:35} He won't regard any ransom,
neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.
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Footnotes:
[1] {5:5} Sheol is the place of the dead.
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