Proverbs 4:1-9

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

4 Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
    and be attentive, that you may gain^[a] 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.”