18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more to 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 thy ear to my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thy eyes; keep them in the midst of thy heart.
22 For they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh. [1]
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. [2]
24 Put away from thee a perverse mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. [3]
25 Let thy eyes look right on, and let thy eyelids look straight before thee.
26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. [4]
27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
CHAP. 5.
My son, attend to my wisdom, and bow thy ear to my understanding:
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: [5]
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged 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 unstable, 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 near the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give thy honour to others, and thy years to the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; [6]
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 my 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 thy own cistern, and running waters out of thy own well.
16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only thy own, and not for 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. [7] [8]
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with an adulteress, 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 held with the cords of his sins. [9]
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
CHAP. 6.
My son, if thou art surety for thy friend, if thou hast struck 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 plead with thy friend. [10]
4 Give not sleep to thy eyes, nor slumber to thy 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 food 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 worthless person, a wicked man, walketh with a perverse mouth.
13 He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;
14 Perverseness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord. [11]
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 to him: [12]
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, [13]
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren.
20 My son, keep thy father’s commandment,
- ↑ health: Heb. medicine
- ↑ with...: Heb. above all keeping
- ↑ a froward...: Heb. frowardness of mouth and perverseness of lips
- ↑ let...: or, all thy ways shall be ordered aright
- ↑ mouth: Heb. palate
- ↑ thy wealth: Heb. thy strength
- ↑ satisfy...: Heb. water thee
- ↑ be thou...: Heb. err thou always in her love
- ↑ sins: Heb. sin
- ↑ and make...: or, so shalt thou prevail with thy friend
- ↑ soweth: Heb. casteth forth
- ↑ unto...: Heb. of his soul
- ↑ A proud...: Heb. Haughty eyes
