Journey Through God's Word

¹Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

²for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,

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, and do not 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 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 graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

¹⁰Hear, my son, 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 the evil.

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 over what they stumble.

²⁰My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

²¹Let them not 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.

²⁶Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.

²⁷Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

¹Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars.

²She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.

³She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town,

⁴“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says,

⁵“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

⁶Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

⁷Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

⁸Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

⁹Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

¹¹For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.

¹²If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

¹³The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing.

¹⁴She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,

¹⁵calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way,

¹⁶“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says,

¹⁷“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

¹⁸But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

¹Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

²The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life.

³It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.

⁴The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

⁵The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

⁶Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?

⁷The righteous who walks in his integrity — blessed are his children after him!

⁸A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes.

⁹Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?

¹⁰Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

¹¹Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.

¹²The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made them both.

¹³Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.

¹⁴“Bad, bad,” says the buyer, but when he goes away, then he boasts.

¹⁵There is gold and abundance of costly stones, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

¹⁶Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger, and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.

¹⁷Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.

¹⁸Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.

¹⁹Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.

²⁰If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.

²¹An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.

²²Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.

²³Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good.

²⁴A man's steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?

²⁵It is a snare to say rashly, “It is holy,” and to reflect only after making vows.

²⁶A wise king winnows the wicked and drives the wheel over them.

²⁷The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost parts.

²⁸Steadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king, and by steadfast love his throne is upheld.

²⁹The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.

³⁰Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts.