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Proverbs 3; Proverbs 4; Proverbs 5

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Proverbs 3

1 My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;
2 for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare they will give you.
3 Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and of people.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.
9 Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce;
10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
11 My child, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof,
12 for the Lord reproves the one he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
13 Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding,
14 for her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy.
19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens;
20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.
21 My child, do not let these escape from your sight: keep sound wisdom and prudence,
22 and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck.
23 Then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble.
24 If you sit down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden panic, or of the storm that strikes the wicked;
26 for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.
27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
28 Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it"—when you have it with you.
29 Do not plan harm against your neighbor who lives trustingly beside you.
30 Do not quarrel with anyone without cause, when no harm has been done to you.
31 Do not envy the violent and do not choose any of their ways;
32 for the perverse are an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence.
33 The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the abode of the righteous.
34 Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he shows favor.
35 The wise will inherit honor, but stubborn fools, disgrace.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 4

1 Listen, children, to a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
2 for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching.
3 When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother's favorite,
4 he taught me, and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.
5 Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight.
8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.
9 She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown."
10 Hear, my child, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.
11 I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
12 When you walk, your step will not be hampered; and if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evildoers.
15 Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what they stumble over.
20 My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.
25 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
26 Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 5

1 My child, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,
2 so that you may hold on to prudence, and your lips may guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol.
6 She does not keep straight to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7 And now, my child, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house;
9 or you will give your honor to others, and your years to the merciless,
10 and strangers will take their fill of your wealth, and your labors will go to the house of an alien;
11 and at the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, "Oh, how I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 Now I am at the point of utter ruin in the public assembly."
15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for sharing with strangers.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts satisfy you at all times; may you be intoxicated always by her love.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
21 For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord, and he examines all their paths.
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them, and they are caught in the toils of their sin.
23 They die for lack of discipline, and because of their great folly they are lost.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.