A Father’s Teaching

4 O sons, hear the teaching of a father. Listen so you may get understanding. ² For I give you good teaching. Do not turn away from it. ³ When I was a much loved and only son of my mother and father, ⁴ he taught me, saying, “Hold my words close to your heart. Keep my teachings and live. ⁵ Get wisdom and understanding. Do not forget or turn away from the words of my mouth. ⁶ Do not leave her alone, and she will keep you safe. Love her, and she will watch over you. ⁷ The beginning of wisdom is: Get wisdom! And with all you have gotten, get understanding. ⁸ Honor her and she will honor you. She will honor you if you hold her to your heart. ⁹ She will put on your head a crown of loving-favor and beauty.”

¹⁰ Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life will be many. ¹¹ I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you on the right paths. ¹² When you walk, your steps will not be stopped. If you run, you will not trip. ¹³ Take hold of teaching. Do not let go. Watch over her, for she is your life. ¹⁴ Do not go on the path of the sinful. Do not walk in the way of bad men. ¹⁵ Stay away from it. Do not pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on. ¹⁶ For they cannot sleep unless they do wrong. They are robbed of sleep unless they make someone fall. ¹⁷ For they eat the bread of sin, and drink the wine of wrong-doing. ¹⁸ But the way of those who are right is like the early morning light. It shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day. ¹⁹ The way of the sinful is like darkness. They do not know what they trip over.

²⁰ My son, listen to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings. ²¹ Do not let them leave your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart. ²² For they are life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. ²³ Keep your heart pure for out of it are the important things of life. ²⁴ Put false speaking away from you. Put bad talk far from you. ²⁵ Let your eyes look straight in front of you, and keep looking at what is in front of you. ²⁶ Watch the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure. ²⁷ Do not turn to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from sin.

Being Led into Sex Sins

5 My son, listen to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding. ² So you may know what is good thinking, and your lips may keep much learning. ³ For the lips of a strange woman are as sweet as honey. Her talk is as smooth as oil. ⁴ But in the end she is as bitter tasting as wormwood, and as sharp as a sword that cuts both ways. ⁵ Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold of hell. ⁶ She does not think about the path of life. Her ways go this way and that, and she does not know it.

⁷ Now then, my sons, listen to me. Do not turn away from the words of my mouth. ⁸ Keep far away from her. Do not go near the door of her house. ⁹ If you do, you would give your strength to others, and your years to those without loving-kindness. ¹⁰ Strangers would be filled with your strength, and the fruits of your work would go to a strange house. ¹¹ You would cry inside yourself when your end comes, when your flesh and body are wasted away. ¹² You would say, “How I have hated teaching! My heart hated strong words! ¹³ I have not listened to the voice of my teachers. I have not turned my ear to those who would teach me. ¹⁴ Now I have a bad name in the meeting place of the people.”

¹⁵ Drink water from your own pool, flowing water from your own well. ¹⁶ Should the waters from your well flow away, rivers of water in the streets? ¹⁷ Let them be yours alone, and not for strangers with you. ¹⁸ Let your well be honored, and be happy with the wife you married when you were young. ¹⁹ Let her be like a loving, female deer. Let her breasts please you at all times. Be filled with great joy always because of her love. ²⁰ My son, why should you be carried away with a sinful woman and fall into the arms of a strange woman? ²¹ For the ways of a man are seen by the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths. ²² His own sins will trap the sinful. He will be held with the ropes of his sin. ²³ He will die for want of teaching, and will go the wrong way because of the greatness of his foolish ways.

A Father Talks to His Son

6 My son, if you have put yourself as a trust for what your neighbor owes to another, or if you have made a promise for a stranger, ² you have been trapped with the words of your lips. You have been caught with the words of your mouth. ³ Do this now, my son, and get yourself out of trouble, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go without pride and beg your neighbor to let you go. ⁴ Do not let your eyes sleep. Do not let your eyes close. ⁵ Take yourself away like a deer from the man who kills animals, and like a bird from the hand of the man who catches birds.

⁶ Go to the ant, O lazy person. Watch and think about her ways, and be wise. ⁷ She has no leader, head or ruler, ⁸ but she gets her food ready in the summer, and gathers her food at the right time. ⁹ How long will you lie down, O lazy person? When will you rise up from your sleep? ¹⁰ A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands to rest, ¹¹ and being poor will come upon you like a robber, and your need like a man ready to fight.

¹² A person of no worth, a sinful man, is he who goes about telling lies. ¹³ He winks with his eyes, makes signs with his feet, and makes certain moves with his fingers. ¹⁴ He always plans to do sinful things because of his sinful heart. He causes arguing among people. ¹⁵ So trouble will come upon him all at once. Right then he will be broken, and there will be no healing.

¹⁶ There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven that are hated by Him: ¹⁷ A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that kill those who are without guilt, ¹⁸ a heart that makes sinful plans, feet that run fast to sin, ¹⁹ a person who tells lies about someone else, and one who starts fights among brothers.

²⁰ My son, keep the teaching of your father, and do not turn away from the teaching of your mother. ²¹ Hold them always to your heart. Tie them around your neck. ²² They will lead you when you walk. They will watch over you when you sleep, and they will talk with you when you wake up. ²³ For the word is a lamp. The teaching is a light, and strong words that punish are the way of life. ²⁴ They keep you from the sinful woman, from the smooth tongue of a sinful woman. ²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart. Do not let her catch you with her eyes. ²⁶ For because of a woman who sells the use of her body, one is brought down to a loaf of bread. A sinful woman hunts to take a man’s very life. ²⁷ Can a man carry fire in his arms, and his clothes not be burned? ²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals, and his feet not be burned? ²⁹ So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will be punished. ³⁰ Men do not hate a robber who steals food for himself when he is hungry. ³¹ But if he is caught, he must pay seven times what he took. He must give up all the things in his house. ³² He who does sex sins with a woman does not think well. He who does it is destroying himself. ³³ He will be hurt and ashamed, and his shame will not be taken away. ³⁴ Jealousy makes a man angry. He will show no pity for the wrong that was done to him. ³⁵ He will not take pay, and he will not be happy even if you give him many gifts.

The Talk of a Sinful Woman

7 My son, keep my words, and hold together my teachings within you. ² Keep my words and live. Keep my teachings as you would your own eye. ³ Tie them upon your fingers. Write them upon your heart. ⁴ Say to wisdom, “You are my sister.” Call understanding your special friend. ⁵ They will keep you from the strange woman, from the stranger with her smooth words.

⁶ For I looked out through the wood-work at the window of my house. ⁷ And I saw among the child-like and among the young people a young man without wisdom and understanding. ⁸ He passed through the street near her corner and took the path to her house, ⁹ in the light of the evening, after it was dark. ¹⁰ See, a woman comes to meet him. She is dressed like a woman who sells the use of her body, and with a heart that wants to fool and trap someone. ¹¹ She is loud and has a strong self-will. Her feet do not stay at home. ¹² She is now in the street, now in the center of town where people gather. She lies in wait at every corner. ¹³ So she catches him and kisses him. With a hard face she says to him, ¹⁴ “It was time for me to give gifts on the altar in worship, and today I have paid what I promised. ¹⁵ So I have come out to meet you, to look for you, and I have found you. ¹⁶ I have spread my bed with coverings of linen cloth from Egypt. ¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with fine perfumes and spices. ¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love until morning. Let us make ourselves happy with love. ¹⁹ For my husband is not at home. He has gone on a long trip. ²⁰ He has taken a bag of money with him, and he will come home at full moon.”

²¹ She leads him away with her tempting talk. She tempts him with the smooth words of her lips. ²² All at once he follows her, like a bull going to be killed, like a wild animal goes into a trap, ²³ until an arrow cuts through him. Like a bird that hurries into the net, he does not know that he will lose his life.

²⁴ So, my sons, listen to me. Listen to the words of my mouth. ²⁵ Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not turn aside into her paths. ²⁶ For she has hurt many and destroyed many others. She has killed a great number. ²⁷ Her house is the way to hell, going down to the rooms of death.