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

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

4:3For I was a son unto my father, tender and an only one in the sight of my mother.

4:4And he taught me, and said unto me, Let thy heart retain my words; keep my commandments and live.

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

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

4:7The beginning of wisdom is, Get wisdom; and with all thy getting get intelligence.

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

4:9She shall give to thy head a garland of grace; a crown of glory will she bestow upon thee.

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

4:11I will teach thee in the way of wisdom, I will lead thee in paths of uprightness.

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 have caused some to fall.

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

4:18But the path of the righteous is as the shining light, going on and brightening until the day be fully come.

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 thy heart.

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

4:23Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded; for out of it are the issues of life.

4:24Put away from thee perverseness of mouth, and corrupt 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 well-ordered.

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

5:1My son, attend unto my wisdom, incline thine ear to my understanding;

5:2that thou mayest keep reflection, and that thy lips may preserve knowledge.

5:3For the lips of the strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

5:4but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

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

5:6Lest she should ponder the path of life, her ways wander, she knoweth not whither.

5:7And now, children, hearken unto me, 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 the fruits of thy toil come into the house of a stranger;

5:11and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed;

5:12and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!

5:13and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me;

5:14I was well nigh 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.

5:16Thy fountains shall be poured forth, as water-brooks in the broadways.

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

5:18Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth.

5:19As a lovely hind and a graceful roe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times: be thou ravished continually with her love.

5:20And why shouldest 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 Jehovah, and he pondereth all his paths.

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

5:23He shall die for want of discipline; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

6:1My son, if thou hast become surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand for 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, since thou hast come into the hand of thy friend: go, humble thyself, and be urgent with thy friend.

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

6:5deliver thyself as a gazelle 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 chief, overseer, or ruler,

6:8provideth her bread in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

6:9How long, sluggard, wilt thou lie down? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

6:10A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest!

6:11So shall thy poverty come as a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man.

6:12A man of Belial, a wicked person, is he that goeth about with a perverse mouth;

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

6:14deceits are in his heart; he deviseth mischief at all times, he soweth discords.

6:15Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly: in a moment shall he be broken, and without remedy.

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

6:17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood;

6:18a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations; feet that are swift in running to mischief;

6:19a false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discords among brethren.

6:20My son, observe thy father's commandment, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;

6:21bind them continually upon thy heart, tie them about thy neck:

6:22when thou walkest, 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 teaching a 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 thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids;

6:26for by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a loaf of bread, and another's wife doth hunt for the precious soul.

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

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

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

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

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

6:32Whoso committeth adultery with a woman is void of understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

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

6:34For jealousy is the rage of a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance;

6:35he will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content though thou multipliest thy gifts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

7:7and I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the sons, 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 of the day, in the blackness of night and the darkness.

7:10And behold, there met him a woman in the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart.

7:11She is clamorous and unmanageable; her feet abide not in her house:

7:12now without, now in the broadways, -- and she lieth in wait at every corner.

7:13And 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 paid my vows:

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

7:16I have decked my bed with tapestry coverlets of variegated linen from Egypt;

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

7:18Come, let us revel in love until the morning, let us delight ourselves with loves.

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

7:20he hath taken the money-bag with him, he will come home on the day of the full moon.

7:21With her much enticement she beguiled him; with the smoothness of her lips she constrained him.

7:22He went after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, and as stocks serve for the correction of the fool;

7:23till an arrow strike through his liver: as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for its life.

7:24And now, ye sons, hearken unto me, and attend to the words of my mouth.

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

7:26for she hath cast down many wounded, and all slain by her were strong.

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