Proverbs 4

1Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend, that you may know prudence.● 2I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law.● 3For I also was my father's son, tender, and as an only son in the sight of my mother:● 4And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live.● 5Get wisdom, get prudence: forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.● 6Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee.● 7The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence.● 8Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.● 9She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown.● 10Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee.● 11I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity:● 12Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not meet a stumblingblock.● 13Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life.● 14Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee.● 15Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it.● 16For they sleep not, except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall.● 17They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.● 18But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards, and increaseth even to perfect day.● 19The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall.● 20My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings.● 21Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart:● 22For they are life to those that find them, and health to all flesh.● 23With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.● 24Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee.● 25Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.● 26Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established.● 27Decline 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.●