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!
14Avoiding 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.
20Remembering 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 1Warning 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.”
15The 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 1The 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.
6The Folly of LazinessGo to the ant, you lazy man! Observe its ways and become wise.
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