| 1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend that you may know prudence. | |
| 2 I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law. | |
| 3 For I also was my father's son, tender and as an only son in the sight of my mother: | |
| 4 And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live. | |
| 5 Get wisdom, get prudence: forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. | |
| 6 Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee. | |
| 7 The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence. | |
| 8 Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her. | |
| 9 She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown. | |
| 10 Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee. | |
| 11 I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity: | |
| 12 Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest thou shalt not meet a stumblingblock. | |
| 13 Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life. | |
| 14 Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee. | |
| 15 Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it. | |
| 16 For they sleep not except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall. | |
| 17 They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity. | |
| 18 But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day. | |
| 19 The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall. | |
| 20 My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings. | |
| 21 Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart: | |
| 22 For they are life to those that find them, and health to all flesh. | |
| 23 With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it. | |
| 24 Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee. | |
| 25 Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps. | |
| 26 Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established. | |
| 27 Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knoweth the ways that are on the right hand: but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But he will make thy courses straight, he will bring forward thy ways in peace. | |
