Proverbs 3–5

Chapter 3

My son, forget not my law, and let thy heart keep my commandments.

²For they shall add to thee length of days, and years of life, and peace.

³Let not mercy and truth leave thee, put them about thy neck, and write them in the tables of thy heart.

⁴And thou shalt find grace, and good understanding before God and men.

⁵Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence.

⁶In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps.

⁷Be not wise in thy own conceit: fear God, and depart from evil:

⁸For it shall be health to thy navel, and moistening to thy bones.

⁹Honour the Lord with thy substance, and give him of the first of all thy fruits;

¹⁰And thy barns shall be filled with abundance, and thy presses shall run over with wine.

¹¹My son, reject not the correction of the Lord: and do not faint when thou art chastised by him:

¹²For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth: and as a father in the son he pleaseth himself.

¹³Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and is rich in prudence:

¹⁴The purchasing thereof is better than the merchandise of silver, and her fruit than the chief and purest gold:

¹⁵She is more precious than all riches: and all the things that are desired, are not to be compared to her.

¹⁶Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory.

¹⁷Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths are peaceable.

¹⁸She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her: and he that shall retain her is blessed.

¹⁹The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, hath established the heavens by prudence.

²⁰By his wisdom the depths have broken out, and the clouds grow thick with dew.

²¹My son, let not these things depart from thy eyes: keep the law and counsel:

²²And there shall be life to thy soul, and grace to thy mouth.

²³Then shalt thou walk confidently in thy way, and thy foot shall not stumble:

²⁴If thou sleep, thou shalt not fear: thou shalt rest, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

²⁵Be not afraid of sudden fear, nor of the power of the wicked falling upon thee.

²⁶For the Lord will be at thy side, and will keep thy foot that thou be not taken.

²⁷Do not withhold him from doing good, who is able: if thou art able, do good thyself also.

²⁸Say not to thy friend: Go, and come again: and to morrow I will give to thee: when thou canst give at present.

²⁹Practise not evil against thy friend, when he hath confidence in thee.

³⁰Strive not against a man without cause, when he hath done thee no evil.

³¹Envy not the unjust man, and do not follow his ways.

³²For every mocker is an abomination to the Lord, and his communication is with the simple.

³³Want is from the Lord in the house of the wicked: but the habitations of the just shall be blessed.

³⁴He shall scorn the scorners, and to the meek he will give grace.

³⁵The wise shall possess glory: the promotion of fools is disgrace.

Chapter 4

Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend, that you may know prudence.

²I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law.

³For I also was my father’s son, tender, and as an only son in the sight of my mother:

⁴And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live.

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

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

⁷The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence.

⁸Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.

⁹She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown.

¹⁰Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee.

¹¹I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity:

¹²Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not meet a stumblingblock.

¹³Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life.

¹⁴Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee.

¹⁵Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it.

¹⁶For they sleep not, except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall.

¹⁷They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.

¹⁸But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards, and increaseth even to perfect day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall.

²⁰My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings.

²¹Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart:

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

²³With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.

²⁴Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee.

²⁵Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.

²⁶Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established.

²⁷Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knoweth the ways that are on the right hand: but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But he will make thy courses straight, he will bring forward thy ways in peace.

Chapter 5

My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence,

²That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.

³For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.

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

⁵Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell.

⁶They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.

⁷Now, therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.

⁹Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.

¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man’s house,

¹¹And thou mourn at the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say;

¹²Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,

¹³And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?

¹⁴I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.

¹⁵Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:

¹⁶Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.

¹⁷Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.

¹⁸Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:

¹⁹Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times: be thou delighted continually with her love.

²⁰Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?

²¹The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.

²²His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.

²³He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.