CHAPTER 4

                ¹Hear, O sons, a father’s reproof,

                    and listen to discerning knowledge.

                ²For good learning I have given you,

                    do not forsake my teaching.

                ³For I was a son to my father,

                    a tender only child for my mother.

                ⁴And he taught me and said to me:

                    “Let your heart hold on to my words.

                          Keep my commands and live.

                ⁵Get wisdom, get discernment.

                    Do not forget nor swerve from my mouth’s sayings.

                ⁶Do not forsake her and she will guard you.

                    Love her and she will keep you.

                ⁷The beginning of wisdom is—get wisdom,

                    and in all that you get, get discernment.

                ⁸Dandle her and she will exalt you,

                    will honor you when you embrace her.

                ⁹She will put on your head a garland of grace,

                    a crown of splendor she will hand you.”

                ¹⁰Hear, my son, and take my sayings,

                    that the years of your life be many.

                ¹¹In the way of wisdom I teach you,

                    I guide you on pathways of rightness.

                ¹²When you walk, your step is not straitened.

                    If you run, you will not stumble.

                ¹³Hold fast to reproof, don’t let go.

                    Keep it, for it is your life.

                ¹⁴On the wicked’s path do not enter,

                    and do not stride on the way of the evil.

                ¹⁵Shun it, don’t pass upon it,

                    turn away from it and pass on.

                ¹⁶For they do not sleep if they’ve done no evil,

                    and they’re robbed of sleep if they trip no one up.

                ¹⁷For they break the bread of wickedness,

                    and the wine of outrage they drink.

                ¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like light’s radiance,

                    ever brighter till day has come.

                ¹⁹The way of the wicked is like darkness.

                    They know not on what they stumble.

                ²⁰My son, listen to my words,

                    to my sayings bend your ear.

                ²¹Let them not slip away from your eyes,

                    guard them within your heart.

                ²²For they are life to those who find them,

                    and healing to all their flesh.

                ²³More than anything watched guard your heart,

                    for from it are the ways out to life.

                ²⁴Put away from you twisted speech

                    and lips’ contortion keep far from you.

                ²⁵Let your eyes look in front,

                    and your gaze straight before you.

                ²⁶Level the pathway of your foot,

                    and all your ways will be sound.

                ²⁷Do not veer to the right or the left.

                    Keep your foot away from evil.