Proverbs 4-6

Proverbs 4

¹Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding:

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

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

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

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

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

⁷Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: yea, with all thou hast gotten get understanding.

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

⁹She shall give to thine head a chaplet of grace: a crown of beauty shall she deliver to thee.

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁵Avoid it, pass not by it; turn from it, and pass on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Proverbs 5

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

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

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

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

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

⁶So that she findeth not the level path of life: her ways are unstable and she knoweth it not.

⁷Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

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

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

¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy strength; and thy labours be in the house of an alien;

¹¹And thou mourn at thy latter end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

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

¹³Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

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

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

¹⁶Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, and rivers of water in the streets?

¹⁷Let them be for thyself alone, and not for strangers with thee.

¹⁸Let thy fountain be blessed; and rejoice in the wife of thy youth.

¹⁹As a loving hind and a pleasant doe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

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

²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he maketh level all his paths.

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

²³He shall die for lack of instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

Proverbs 6

¹My son, if thou art become surety for thy neighbour, if thou hast stricken thy hands for a stranger,

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

³Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, seeing thou art come into the hand of thy neighbour; go, humble thyself, and importune thy neighbour.

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

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

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

⁷Which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

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

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

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

¹¹So shall thy poverty come as a robber, and thy want as an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a man of iniquity; he walketh with a froward mouth;

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

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

¹⁵Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; on a sudden shall he be broken and that without remedy.

¹⁶There be six things which the LORD hateth; yea, seven which are an abomination unto him:

¹⁷Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood;

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

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

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

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

²²When thou walkest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall watch over thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

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

²⁴To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the stranger’s tongue.

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

²⁶For on account of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress hunteth for the precious life.

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

²⁸Or can one walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So he that goeth in to his nieghbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be unpunished.

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

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

³²He that committeth adultery with a woman is void of understanding: he doeth it that would destroy his own soul.

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

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

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