June 4

Proverbs 4-6

King James Version (KJV)

4 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

^2 For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.

^3 For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.

^4 He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.

^5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

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

^7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

^8 Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

^9 She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

^10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.

^11 I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.

^12 When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

^13 Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

^14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.

^15 Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

^16 For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

^17 For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

^18 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto 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 thine ear unto my sayings.

^21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

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

^23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

^24 Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

^25 Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

^26 Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

^27 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

 

5 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

^2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

^3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

^4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged 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 moveable, 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 nigh the door of her house:

^9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

^10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

^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 mine 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 thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

^16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

^17 Let them be only thine own, and not 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.

^20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, 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 holden with the cords of his sins.

^23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

 

6 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken 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 make sure thy friend.

^4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine 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 meat 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 naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

^13 He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

^14 Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

^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 unto him:

^17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

^18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

^19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

^20 My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

^21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

^22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

^23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

^24 To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

^25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

^26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adultress will hunt for the precious life.

^27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

^28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

^29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

^30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

^31 But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

^32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

^33 A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

^34 For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

^35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.