Proverbs 4-6
King James Version (KJV)
4Â Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
2Â For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.
3Â For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
4Â He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.
5Â Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
6Â Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
7Â Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
8Â Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
9Â She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
10Â Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
11Â I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.
12Â When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
13Â Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.
14Â Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
15Â Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
16Â For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
17Â For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
18Â But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
19Â The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
20Â My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21Â Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22Â For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
23Â Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
24Â Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
25Â Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
26Â Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
27Â Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
5Â My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2Â That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3Â For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4Â But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Â Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6Â Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7Â Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8Â Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9Â Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10Â Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11Â And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12Â And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13Â And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14Â I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15Â Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16Â Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17Â Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
18Â Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19Â 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.
20Â And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21Â For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.
22Â His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23Â He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
6Â My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
2Â Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
3Â 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.
4Â Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5Â Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6Â Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
7Â Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8Â Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
9Â How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
10Â Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
11Â So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
12Â A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.
13Â He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;
14Â Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.
15Â Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.
16Â These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17Â A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18Â An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19Â A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
20Â My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
21Â Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.
22Â When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
23Â For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
24Â To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
25Â Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
26Â 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.
27Â Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
28Â Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
29Â So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
30Â Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
31Â But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
32Â But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
33Â A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
34Â For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35Â He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.