Historical
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].
5 Beni (my son), attend unto my chochmah, and bow thine ozen to my tevunah (understanding);
2 That thou mayest regard mezimah (discretion), and that thy sfatayim (lips) may keep da’as (knowledge).
3 For the sfatayim (lips) of a zarah (strange woman) drip as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than shemen (olive oil);
4 But her end is marah (bitter) as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged cherev.
5 Her raglayim go down to mavet; her steps lead to Sheol.
6 Lest thou shouldest compare [hers] to the orach chayyim, her ma’agalot (paths) are crooked, that thou canst not know them.
7 Hear me now therefore, O ye banim, and turn not from the words of my peh (mouth).
8 Remove thy derech far from her, and come not near the petach (doorway) of her bais;
9 Lest thou give thine hod (strength) unto others, and thy shanim unto the cruel one;
10 Lest zarim (strangers) be filled with thy koach; and thy toilings be in the bais nochri;
11 And thou mourn at the acharit (last, latter end, future), when thy basar and thy body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated musar, and my lev spurned tokhakhat (reproof);
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my morim (teachers), nor inclined mine ear to the ones who were my melamed!
14 I was at the brink of all rah (evil, ruin) in the midst of the kahal (congregation) and edah (assembly).
15 Drink mayim out of thine own bor (cistern), and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Should thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and channels of mayim in the rekhovot (town squares)?
17 Let them be only thine own, and never zarim (strangers) with thee.
18 Let thy makor (fountain) be blessed; and rejoice with the isha of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving deer and graceful doe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou enraptured tamid (ever) with ahavat (love of) her.
20 And why wilt thou, beni (my son), be intoxicated with a zarah (strange woman), and embrace the kheyk (bosom) of a nochriyah (foreign [heathen] woman)?
21 For the drakhim ish are before the eyes of Hashem, and He pondereth all his ma’agalot (paths).
22 His own avonot shall entrap the rashah himself, and he shall be held fast by the cords of his chattat.
23 He shall die without musar; and in the greatness of his folly he shall be led astray.
6 Beni (my son), if thou put up collateral for thy re’a, if thou hast shaken hands in pledge with a zar (stranger),
2 Thou art snared with the words of thy peh (mouth), thou art trapped with the words of thy peh (mouth).
3 Do this now, beni (my son), and deliver thyself, since thou art come into the palm of thy re’a; go, humble thyself, and plead with thy re’a.
4 Give not sheynah to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5 Deliver thyself as a gazelle from the yad [of the hunter], and as a tzippor (bird) from the yad of the fowler.
6 Go to the nemalah (ant), thou atzel (sluggard, lazy one); consider her drakhim (ways), and be chacham (wise);
7 Which having no katzin (officer, leader) or shoter (policeman) or moshel,
8 Prepareth her lechem in the kayitz (summer), and gathereth her food in the katzir (harvest).
9 Ad mosai wilt thou lie down, O atzel (sluggard, lazy one)? When wilt thou arise out of thy sheynah (sleep)?
10 Yet a little sheynot (sleep [pl.]), a little slumber, a little folding of the yadayim to sleep;
11 So shall thy poverty come as a prowler, and thy need as an ish mogen (man of armor).
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, walketh with a perverse peh (mouth).
13 He winketh with his eyes, he shuffleth with his regel, he pointeth with his fingers;
14 Tahpukhot (perversity) is in his lev, he deviseth rah continually; he stirs up midanim (contention, strife, discord [pl.]).
15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be destoyed without marpeh (remedy).
16 These shesh (six) things doth Hashem hate; indeed, shevah (seven) are an abomination unto His Nefesh;
17 Haughty eyes, a lashon sheker, and hands guilty of shefach dahm naki,
18 A lev that deviseth wicked machshevot (plans), raglayim that are swift in running to ra’ah,
19 An ed sheker that speaketh lies, and he that soweth midanim (contention, strife, discords) among achim.
20 Beni (my son), keep the mitzvat Avicha, and forsake not the torat Immecha;
21 Bind them tamid (continually) upon thine lev, and tie them about thy neck.
22 When thou goest, it shall guide thee; when thou sleepest, it shall be shomer over thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
23 For the mitzvah is a ner (lamp); and torah an ohr; and tokhakhot musar (reproofs of discipline) are the Derech Chayyim (Life Lane);
24 To be shomer over thee, keeping thee from the eshet rah, from the smooth lashon of the nokhriyah (strange woman).
25 Lust not after her beauty in thine lev; neither let her allure thee with her eyelids.
26 For by means of an isha zonah a man is reduced to a kikar lechem; and [another] man’s wife will prey on the nefesh yekara (precious soul).
27 Can a man take eish in his kheyk, and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can one walk upon hot coals, and his regel not be burned?
29 So is he that goeth into his eshet re’a; whosoever toucheth her shall not go unpunished.
30 Men do not despise a ganav if he steal to satisfy his nefesh when he is starving;
31 But if he be found out, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give hon (substance, wealth) of his bais;
32 But the no’ef (one who committeth adultery) with an isha lacketh lev [of understanding]; he that doeth it destroyeth his own nefesh.
33 A nega [see Isaiah 53:8 for Moshiach’s nega taken for unfaithful Israel] and dishonor shall he get; and his cherpah (reproach) shall not be wiped away.
34 For kina (jealousy) is the chamat gever (husband’s rage); therefore he will not spare in the yom nakam (day of vengeance).
35 He will not regard kofer (compensation); neither will he be the appeased, though shochad (bribe) be great.
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