Proverbs 4–6

1Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.

2For I give you sound teaching; do not abandon my directive.

3When I was a son to my father, tender and the only child of my mother,

4he taught me and said, “Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands and you will live.

5Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn from them.

6Do not forsake wisdom, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you.

7Wisdom is supreme; so acquire wisdom. And whatever you may acquire, gain understanding.

8Prize her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.

9She will set a garland of grace on your head; she will present you with a crown of beauty.”

10Listen, my son, and receive my words, and the years of your life will be many.

11I will guide you in the way of wisdom; I will lead you on straight paths.

12When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; when you run, you will not stumble.

13Hold on to instruction; do not let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

14Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers.

15Avoid it; do not travel on it. Turn from it and pass on by.

16For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.

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

18The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

19But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.

20My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

21Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.

22For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.

23Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.

24Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech.

25Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

26Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

27Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil.

1My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,

2that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.

3Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

4in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

5Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.

6She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.

7So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

8Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,

9lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;

10lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.

11At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,

12and you will say, “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 mentors.

14I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”

15Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

16Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

17Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

19A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

20Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?

21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.

22The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

23He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

1My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger,

2if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth,

3then do this, my son, to free yourself, for you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go, humble yourself, and press your plea with your neighbor.

4Allow no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.

5Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

6Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise.

7Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler,

8it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food at harvest.

9How long will you lie there, O slacker? When will you get up 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 need like a bandit.

12A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,

13winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers.

14With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.

15Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in an instant he will be shattered beyond recovery.

16There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:

17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

18a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,

19a false witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up discord among brothers.

20My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

21Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck.

22When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

23For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,

24to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

25Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

26For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

27Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

28Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

29So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

30Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger.

31Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house.

32He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.

33Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away.

34For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance.

35He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.