Proverbs 4:1-6:35 Diligently Pursue Wisdom Listen, children, to your father’s instruction, and pay attention in order to gain understanding.

ISV⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Diligently Pursue Wisdom Listen, children, to your father’s instruction, and pay attention in order to gain understanding. ² I give you sound teaching, so do not abandon my instruction. ³ When I was a son to my father, not yet strong and an only son to my mother, ⁴ he taught me and told me, “Let your heart fully embrace what I have to say; keep my commandments and live! ⁵ Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget or turn aside from the words of my mouth! ⁶ Do not abandon her, and she will protect you. Love her, and she will watch over you. ⁷ Wisdom is of utmost importance, therefore get wisdom, and with all your effort work to acquire understanding. ⁸ Prize her and she will exalt you. Indeed, if you embrace her, she will honor you. ⁹ She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will present to you a crown of beauty.” ¹⁰ Listen, my son: accept my words, and you’ll live a long, long time. ¹¹ I have directed you in the way of wisdom, and I have led you along straight paths. ¹² When you walk, your step will not be hindered, and when you run, you will not stumble. ¹³ Hold on to instruction, do not let it go! Guard wisdom, because she is your life!
¹⁴ Avoiding the Ways of the WickedDo not enter the path of the wicked, or go along the way of evil men. ¹⁵ Avoid it! Don’t travel on it! Turn away from it, and pass on by. ¹⁶ For they cannot sleep unless they are doing evil, and they are robbed of their sleep unless they cause someone to stumble. ¹⁷ For they eat the bread of wickedness, and they drink the wine of violence. ¹⁸ The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that grows brighter until the full light of day. ¹⁹ But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness, and they do not know what they are stumbling over.
²⁰ Remembering the Counsel of a Wise FatherMy son, pay attention to my words, and listen closely to what I say. ²¹ Do not let them out of your sight; keep them within your heart. ²² For they are life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. ²³ Above everything else guard your heart, because from it flow the springs of life. ²⁴ Never talk deceptively and don’t keep company with people whose speech is corrupt. ²⁵ Let your eyes look directly ahead; fix your gaze straight in front of you. ²⁶ Carefully measure the paths for your feet, and all your ways will be established. ²⁷ Do not turn to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
⁵ ¹ Warning against Sexual Immorality My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and listen closely to my insight, ² so you may carefully practice discretion and your lips preserve knowledge. ³ For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. ⁴ But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps lead to Sheol. ⁶ You aren’t thinking about where her life is headed; her steps wander, but you do not realize it. ⁷ Now, children, listen to me. Don’t turn away from what I am saying. ⁸ Keep far away from her, and don’t go near the entrance to her house, ⁹ so that you don’t give your honor to others, and waste your best years; ¹⁰ so that strangers don’t enrich themselves at your expense, and your work won’t end up the possession of foreigners. ¹¹ You will cry out in anguish when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed, ¹² and you will say, “How I hated instruction, and my heart rejected correction! ¹³ I did not obey my teachers and did not listen to my instructors. ¹⁴ Now I am at the point of utter disaster in the assembly and in the congregation.”
¹⁵ The Delights of Marital FaithfulnessDrink water from your own cistern, and fresh water from your own well. ¹⁶ Should your springs flow outside, or streams of water in the street? ¹⁷ They should be for you alone and not for strangers who are with you. ¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed and enjoy the wife of your youth. ¹⁹ Like a loving deer, a beautiful doe, let her breasts satisfy you all the time. Be constantly intoxicated by her love. ²⁰ Why should you be intoxicated by an adulteress, my son, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman? ²¹ Indeed, what a man does is always in the LORD’s presence, and he weighs all his paths. ²² The wicked person’s iniquities will capture him, and he will be held with the cords of his sin. ²³ He will die for lack of discipline, and he goes astray because of his great folly.
⁶ ¹ The Folly of Guaranteeing Loans My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor, if you have agreed to a deal with a stranger, ² trapped by your own words, and caught by your own words, ³ then do this, my son, and deliver yourself, because you have come under your neighbor’s control. Go, humble yourself! Plead passionately with your neighbor! ⁴ Don’t allow yourself to sleep or even to close your eyes. ⁵ Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a hunter’s hand, or like a bird from a fowler’s hand.
⁶ The Folly of LazinessGo to the ant, you lazy man! Observe its ways and become wise. ⁷ It has no commander, officer, or ruler, ⁸ but prepares its provisions in the summer and gathers its food in the harvest. ⁹ How long will you lie down, lazy man? When will you get up from your sleep? ¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, ¹¹ and your poverty will come on you like a bandit and your desperation like an armed man.
¹² The Folly of Causing StrifeA worthless man, a wicked man, goes around with devious speech, ¹³ winking with his eyes, making signs with his feet, pointing with his fingers, ¹⁴ planning evil with a perverse mind, continually stirring up discord. ¹⁵ Therefore, disaster will overtake him suddenly. He will be broken in an instant, and he will never recover.
¹⁶ What God HatesHere are six things that the LORD hates— seven, in fact, are detestable to him: ¹⁷ Arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, and hands shedding innocent blood; ¹⁸ a heart crafting evil plans, feet running swiftly to wickedness, ¹⁹ a false witness snorting lies, and someone sowing quarrels between brothers.
²⁰ Parental Counsel about ImmoralityKeep your father’s commands, my son, and never forsake your mother’s rules, ²¹ by binding them to your heart continuously, fastening them around your neck. ²² During your travels wisdom will lead you; she will watch over you while you rest; and when you are startled from your sleep, she will commune with you. ²³ Because the command is a lamp and the Law a light, rebukes that discipline are a way of life— ²⁴ to protect you from the evil woman, from the words of the seductive woman. ²⁵ Do not focus on her beauty in your mind, nor allow her to take you prisoner with her flirting eyes, ²⁶ because the price of a whore is a loaf of bread, and an adulterous woman stalks a man’s precious life. ²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his bosom without burning his clothes? ²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet? ²⁹ So also is it with someone who has sex with his neighbor’s wife; anyone touching her will not remain unpunished. ³⁰ A thief isn’t despised if he steals to meet his needs when he is hungry, ³¹ but when he is discovered, he must restore seven-fold, forfeiting the entire value of his house. ³² Whoever commits adultery with a woman is out of his mind; by doing so he corrupts his own soul. ³³ He will receive a beating and dishonor, and his shame won’t disappear, ³⁴ because jealousy incites a strong man’s rage, and he will show no mercy when it’s time for revenge. ³⁵ He will not consider any payment, nor will he be willing to accept it, no matter how large the bribe.