Proverbs 3–5

Admonition to Trust and Honor God

³My child, do not forget my teaching,

but let your heart keep my commandments,^*

²for length of days and years of life

and abundant welfare they will give you.^*

³Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you;

bind them around your neck;

write them on the tablet of your heart.^*

⁴Then you will find favor and high regard

in the sight of God and of people.^*

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not rely on your own insight.^*

⁶In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.^*

⁷Do not be wise in your own eyes;

fear the Lord and turn away from evil.^*

⁸It will be a healing for your flesh

and a refreshment for your body.^*

⁹Honor the Lord with your substance

and with the first fruits of all your produce;^*

¹⁰then your barns will be filled with plenty,

and your vats will be bursting with wine.

¹¹My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline

or be weary of his reproof,^*

¹²for the Lord reproves the one he loves,

as a father the son in whom he delights.^*

The True Wealth

¹³Happy are those who find wisdom

and those who get understanding,

¹⁴for her income is better than silver

and her revenue better than gold.^*

¹⁵She is more precious than jewels,

and nothing you desire can compare with her.^*

¹⁶Long life is in her right hand;

in her left hand are riches and honor.^*

¹⁷Her ways are ways of pleasantness,

and all her paths are peace.^*

¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;

those who hold her fast are called happy.^*

God’s Wisdom in Creation

¹⁹The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;

by understanding he established the heavens;^*

²⁰by his knowledge the deeps broke open,

and the clouds drop down the dew.^*

The True Security

²¹My child, do not let these escape from your sight:

keep sound wisdom and prudence,

²²and they will be life for your soul

and adornment for your neck.^*

²³Then you will walk on your way securely,

and your foot will not stumble.^*

²⁴If you sit down,^e you will not be afraid;

when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

²⁵Then you will not be afraid of sudden panic

or of the storm that strikes the wicked,^*

²⁶for the Lord will be your confidence

and will keep your foot from being caught.

²⁷Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,^f

when it is in your power to do it.^*

²⁸Do not say to your neighbor, “Go and come again;

tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you.^*

²⁹Do not plan harm against your neighbor

who lives trustingly beside you.^*

³⁰Do not quarrel with anyone without cause,

when no harm has been done to you.^*

³¹Do not envy the violent,

and do not choose any of their ways,^*

³²for the perverse are an abomination to the Lord,

but the upright are in his confidence.^*

³³The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked,

but he blesses the abode of the righteous.^*

³⁴Toward the scorners he is scornful,

but to the humble he shows favor.^*

³⁵The wise will inherit honor,

but stubborn fools, disgrace.

Parental Advice

⁴Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,

and be attentive, that you may gain^g insight,^*

²for I give you good precepts:

do not forsake my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father,

tender and my mother’s favorite,^*

⁴he taught me and said to me,

“Let your heart hold fast my words;

keep my commandments and live.^*

⁵Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget nor turn away

from the words of my mouth.^*

⁶Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;

love her, and she will guard you.^*

⁷The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom,

and whatever else you get, get insight.^*

⁸Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;

she will honor you if you embrace her.^*

⁹She will place on your head a fair garland;

she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”^*

Admonition to Keep to the Right Path

¹⁰Hear, my child, and accept my words,

that the years of your life may be many.

¹¹I have taught you the way of wisdom;

I have led you in the paths of uprightness.^*

¹²When you walk, your step will not be hampered,

and if you run, you will not stumble.^*

¹³Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;

guard her, for she is your life.

¹⁴Do not enter the path of the wicked,

and do not walk in the way of evildoers.^*

¹⁵Avoid it; do not go on it;

turn away from it and pass on.

¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;

they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.^*

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness

and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,

which shines brighter and brighter until full day.^*

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;

they do not know what they stumble over.^*

²⁰My child, be attentive to my words;

incline your ear to my sayings.

²¹Do not let them escape from your sight;

keep them within your heart.^*

²²For they are life to those who find them

and healing to all their flesh.^*

²³Keep your heart with all vigilance,

for from it flow the springs of life.^*

²⁴Put away from you crooked speech,

and put devious talk far from you.^*

²⁵Let your eyes look directly forward

and your gaze be straight before you.

²⁶Keep straight the path of your feet,

and all your ways will be sure.^*

²⁷Do not swerve to the right or to the left;

turn your foot away from evil.^*

Warning against Impurity and Infidelity

⁵My child, be attentive to my wisdom;

incline your ear to my understanding,^*

²so that you may hold on to prudence,

and your lips may guard knowledge.

³For the lips of a loose woman^h drip honey,

and her speech is smoother than oil,^*

⁴but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

sharp as a two-edged sword.^*

⁵Her feet go down to death;

her steps follow the path to Sheol.

⁶She does not keep straight to the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And now, my child,ⁱ listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth.^*

⁸Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,^*

⁹lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

¹⁰and strangers take their fill of your wealth,

and your labors go to the house of an alien,

¹¹and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

¹²and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof!^*

¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴Now I am at the point of utter ruin

in the public assembly.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs be scattered abroad,

streams of water in the streets?^*

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone

and not for sharing with strangers.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed,

and rejoice in the wife of your youth,^*

¹⁹a lovely deer, a graceful doe.

May her breasts satisfy you at all times;

may you be intoxicated always by her love.^*

²⁰Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman

and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?^j*

²¹For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord,

and he examines all their paths.^*

²²The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them,

and they are caught in the coils of their sin.^*

²³They die for lack of discipline,

and because of their great folly they are lost.^*