1The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
2For learning about wisdom and instruction,
for understanding words of insight,
3for gaining instruction in wise dealing,
righteousness, justice, and equity;
4to teach shrewdness to the simple,
knowledge and prudence to the young—
5let the wise also hear and gain in learning,
and the discerning acquire skill,
6to understand a proverb and a figure,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,
and do not reject your mother’s teaching;
9for they are a fair garland for your head,
and pendants for your neck.
10My child, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
11If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
let us wantonly ambush the innocent;
12like Sheol let us swallow them alive
and whole, like those who go down to the Pit.
13We shall find all kinds of costly things;
we shall fill our houses with booty.
14Throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse”—
15my child, do not walk in their way,
keep your foot from their paths;
16for their feet run to evil,
and they hurry to shed blood.
17For in vain is the net baited
while the bird is looking on;
18yet they lie in wait—to kill themselves!
and set an ambush—for their own lives!
19Such is the end of all who are greedy for gain;
it takes away the life of its possessors.
20Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
21At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.
24Because I have called and you refused,
have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,
25and because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,
26I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when panic strikes you,
27when panic strikes you like a storm,
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
28Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.
29Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30would have none of my counsel,
and despised all my reproof,
31therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
and be sated with their own devices.
32For waywardness kills the simple,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
33but those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”
2My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
2making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3if you indeed cry out for insight,
and raise your voice for understanding;
4if you seek it like silver,
and search for it as for hidden treasures—
5then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
6For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
8guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
9Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11prudence will watch over you;
and understanding will guard you.
12It will save you from the way of evil,
from those who speak perversely,
13who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
14who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil;
15those whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.
16You will be saved from the loose woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
17who forsakes the partner of her youth
and forgets her sacred covenant;
18for her way leads down to death,
and her paths to the shades;
19those who go to her never come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
20Therefore walk in the way of the good,
and keep to the paths of the just.
21For the upright will abide in the land,
and the innocent will remain in it;
22but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
3My child, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments;
2for length of days and years of life
and abundant welfare they will give you.
3Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4So you will find favor and good repute
in the sight of God and of people.
5Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
6In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
7Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.
9Honor the Lord with your substance
and with the first fruits of all your produce;
10then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine.
11My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof,
12for the Lord reproves the one he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.
13Happy are those who find wisdom,
and those who get understanding,
14for her income is better than silver,
and her revenue better than gold.
15She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.
16Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
17Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.
18She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called happy.
19The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding he established the heavens;
20by his knowledge the deeps broke open,
and the clouds drop down the dew.
21My child, do not let these escape from your sight:
keep sound wisdom and prudence,
22and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.
23Then you will walk on your way securely
and your foot will not stumble.
24If you sit down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25Do not be afraid of sudden panic,
or of the storm that strikes the wicked;
26for the Lord will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being caught.
27Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to do it.
28Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.
29Do not plan harm against your neighbor
who lives trustingly beside you.
30Do not quarrel with anyone without cause,
when no harm has been done to you.
31Do not envy the violent
and do not choose any of their ways;
32for the perverse are an abomination to the Lord,
but the upright are in his confidence.
33The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked,
but he blesses the abode of the righteous.
34Toward the scorners he is scornful,
but to the humble he shows favor.
35The wise will inherit honor,
but stubborn fools, disgrace.
4Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
2for I give you good precepts:
do not forsake my teaching.
3When I was a son with my father,
tender, and my mother’s favorite,
4he taught me, and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.
5Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away
from the words of my mouth.
6Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
7The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever else you get, get insight.
8Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
9She will place on your head a fair garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”
10Hear, my child, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
11I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
12When you walk, your step will not be hampered;
and if you run, you will not stumble.
13Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
14Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of evildoers.
15Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
16For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
17For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
18But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
19The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know what they stumble over.
20My child, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
21Do not let them escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
22For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
23Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
24Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
25Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
26Keep straight the path of your feet,
and all your ways will be sure.
27Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.
5My child, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,
2so that you may hold on to prudence,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
3For the lips of a loose woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil;
4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol.
6She does not keep straight to the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7And now, my child, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house;
9or you will give your honor to others,
and your years to the merciless,
10and strangers will take their fill of your wealth,
and your labors will go to the house of an alien;
11and at the end of your life you will groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof !
13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14Now I am at the point of utter ruin
in the public assembly.”
15Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
17Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for sharing with strangers.
18Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
19a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
May her breasts satisfy you at all times;
may you be intoxicated always by her love.
20Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman
and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
21For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord,
and he examines all their paths.
22The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them,
and they are caught in the toils of their sin.
23They die for lack of discipline,
and because of their great folly they are lost.
6My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor,
if you have bound yourself to another,
2you are snared by the utterance of your lips,
caught by the words of your mouth.
3So do this, my child, and save yourself,
for you have come into your neighbor’s power:
go, hurry, and plead with your neighbor.
4Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
5save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6Go to the ant, you lazybones;
consider its ways, and be wise.
7Without having any chief
or officer or ruler,
8it prepares its food in summer,
and gathers its sustenance in harvest.
9How long will you lie there, O lazybones?
When will you rise from your sleep?
10A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
11and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want, like an armed warrior.
12A scoundrel and a villain
goes around with crooked speech,
13winking the eyes, shuffling the feet,
pointing the fingers,
14with perverted mind devising evil,
continually sowing discord;
15on such a one calamity will descend suddenly;
in a moment, damage beyond repair.
16There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
17haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
18a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that hurry to run to evil,
19a lying witness who testifies falsely,
and one who sows discord in a family.
20My child, keep your father’s commandment,
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
21Bind them upon your heart always;
tie them around your neck.
22When you walk, they will lead you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
and when you awake, they will talk with you.
23For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
24to preserve you from the wife of another,
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
25Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
26for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,
but the wife of another stalks a man’s very life.
27Can fire be carried in the bosom
without burning one’s clothes?
28Or can one walk on hot coals
without scorching the feet?
29So is he who sleeps with his neighbor’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30Thieves are not despised who steal only
to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.
31Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold;
they will forfeit all the goods of their house.
32But he who commits adultery has no sense;
he who does it destroys himself.
33He will get wounds and dishonor,
and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
34For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
and he shows no restraint when he takes revenge.
35He will accept no compensation,
and refuses a bribe no matter how great.
7My child, keep my words
and store up my commandments with you;
2keep my commandments and live,
keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;
3bind them on your fingers,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,
5that they may keep you from the loose woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words.
6For at the window of my house
I looked out through my lattice,
7and I saw among the simple ones,
I observed among the youths,
a young man without sense,
8passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house
9in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness.
10Then a woman comes toward him,
decked out like a prostitute, wily of heart.
11She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;
12now in the street, now in the squares,
and at every corner she lies in wait.
13She seizes him and kisses him,
and with impudent face she says to him:
14“I had to offer sacrifices,
and today I have paid my vows;
15so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!
16I have decked my couch with coverings,
colored spreads of Egyptian linen;
17I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
18Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;
let us delight ourselves with love.
19For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey.
20He took a bag of money with him;
he will not come home until full moon.”
21With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
22Right away he follows her,
and goes like an ox to the slaughter,
or bounds like a stag toward the trap
23until an arrow pierces its entrails.
He is like a bird rushing into a snare,
not knowing that it will cost him his life.
24And now, my children, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.