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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

⁴ But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁹ Let 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

³ Do 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.

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

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

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

⁷ Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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