Mishle 4

Orthodox Jewish Bible

4 Hear, ye banim, the musar (instruction, discipline) of an av, and attend to know binah (understanding).

² For I give you lekach tov (good doctrine, good instruction), forsake ye not my torah.

³ For I was ben to avi, tender and yachid (an only child) before immi.

⁴ He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine lev retain my words; be shomer over my mitzvot, and live.

⁵ Acquire chochmah, acquire binah (understanding); forget it not; neither turn from the words of my peh (mouth).

⁶ Forsake her not, and she shall be shomer over thee; love her, and she shall protect thee.

⁷ Chochmah is the principal thing; therefore get chochmah, and with all thy getting get binah (understanding).

⁸ Exalt her, and she shall promote thee; she shall honor thee with kavod, when thou dost embrace her.

⁹ She shall give to thine head a garland of chen; an ateret (crown) of tiferet (glory) shall she present to thee.

¹⁰ Hear, O beni (my son), and receive my sayings; and thy shnot chayyim shall be many.

¹¹ I have taught thee in the derech chochmah; I have led thee in ma’aglei yosher (right paths).

¹² When thou goest, thy steps shall not be hindered; and when thou runnest, lo tikashel (thou shalt not stumble).

¹³ Take firm hold of musar; let her not go; guard her; for she is thy chayyim.

¹⁴ Enter not into the orach resha’im, and go not on the derech ra’im (road of the wicked).

¹⁵ Avoid it, travel al (not) on it, turn from it, and pass on.

¹⁶ For they sleep not, unless they have done evil; and their sheynah (sleep) is robbed, unless they cause some to fall.

¹⁷ For they eat the lechem of resha, and drink the yayin of chamasim (violences).

¹⁸ But the orach tzaddikim (path of the righteous) is as the bright light, that shineth brighter and brighter unto the full day.

¹⁹ The derech resha’im is as deep darkness; they know not at what they stumble.

²⁰ Beni (my son), attend to my words; incline thine ozen unto my sayings.

²¹ Let them not depart from thine eyes; be shomer over them within thine lev.

²² For they are chayyim unto those that find them, and health to all their basar.

²³ Set watch over and guard thy lev with all diligence; for out of it are the totze’ot chayyim (issues, wellsprings of life cf Mk 7:20-23).

²⁴ Put away from thee a deceitful peh (mouth), and perverse sfatayim (lips) put far from thee.

²⁵ Let thine eynayim look straight forward, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

²⁶ Ponder the ma’agal (path) of thy raglayim, and let all thy drakhim be firm.

²⁷ Turn not to the right hand nor to the left; remove thy regel from rah [T.N. Everyone in life has two paths to choose from just as Moshiach Tzidkeinu spoke of two gates, a wide one crowded with traffic and leading to destruction, and another one found by few but leading to life and redemption‖Mt 7:13-14].