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Don’t envy the man of violence. Choose none of his ways.

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For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, but his friendship is with the upright.

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Yahweh’s curse is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the righteous.

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Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.

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The wise will inherit glory, but shame will be the promotion of fools.

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Listen, sons, to a father’s instruction. Pay attention and know understanding;

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for I give you sound learning. Don’t forsake my law.

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For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.

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He taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments, and live.

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Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don’t forget, neither swerve from the words of my mouth.

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Don’t forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you.

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Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.

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Esteem her, and she will exalt you. She will bring you to honor, when you embrace her.

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She will give to your head a garland of grace. She will deliver a crown of splendor to you.”

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Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many.

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I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in straight paths.

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When you go, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble.

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Take firm hold of instruction. Don’t let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.

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Don’t enter into the path of the wicked. Don’t walk in the way of evil men.

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Avoid it, and don’t pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on.

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For they don’t sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.

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

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But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light, that shines more and more until the perfect day.

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The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.

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My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings.

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Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart.

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For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body.

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Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.

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Put away from yourself a perverse mouth. Put corrupt lips far from you.

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Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

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Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established.

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Don’t turn to the right hand nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.

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My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:

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that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.

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For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

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But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

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Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

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She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.

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Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.

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Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,

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lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;

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lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.

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You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

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and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

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neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!

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I have come to the brink of utter ruin, in the midst of the gathered assembly.”

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Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.

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Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

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Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.

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Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

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A loving doe and a graceful deer– let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

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For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

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For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yahweh. He examines all his paths.

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The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

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He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.

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My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;

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You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.

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Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.

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Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.

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Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

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Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;

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which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

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provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.

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How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

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A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

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so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.

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A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth;

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who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers;

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in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.

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Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

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There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:

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haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood;

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a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

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a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

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My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.

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Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.

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When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.

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For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

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to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.

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Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.

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For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

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Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?

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Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

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So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

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Men don’t despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry:

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but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.

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He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

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He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.

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For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.

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He won’t regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.

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My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

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Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

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Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

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Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.” Call understanding your relative,

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that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

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For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

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I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

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passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

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in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

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Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.