4:1Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

4:2For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.

4:3For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.

4:4He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.

4:5Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

4:6Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.

4:7Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

4:8Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

4:9She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

4:10Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.

4:11I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.

4:12When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

4:13Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

4:14Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.

4:15Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

4:16For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

4:17For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

4:18But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

4:19The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

4:20My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

4:21Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

4:22For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

4:23Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

4:24Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

4:25Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

4:26Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

4:27Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

5:1My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

5:2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

5:3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

5:4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

5:5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

5:6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

5:7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

5:8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

5:9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

5:10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

5:11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

5:12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

5:13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

5:14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

5:15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

5:16Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

5:17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.

5:18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

5:19Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

5:20And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

5:21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.

5:22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

5:23He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

6:1My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,

6:2Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

6:3Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.

6:4Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.

6:5Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6:6Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

6:7Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

6:8Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

6:9How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

6:10Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

6:11So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

6:12A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

6:13He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

6:14Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

6:15Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

6:16These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

6:17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

6:18An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

6:19A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

6:20My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

6:21Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

6:22When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

6:23For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

6:24To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

6:25Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

6:26For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.

6:27Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

6:28Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

6:29So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

6:30Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

6:31But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

6:32But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

6:33A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

6:34For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

6:35He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.

7:1My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

7:2Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

7:3Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

7:4Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

7:5That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

7:6For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

7:7And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

7:8Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

7:9In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

7:10And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

7:11(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

7:12Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

7:13So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

7:14I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

7:15Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

7:16I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

7:17I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

7:18Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

7:19For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

7:20He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

7:21With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

7:22He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

7:23Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

7:24Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

7:25Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

7:26For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

7:27Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.