Should your springs (children) be dispersed,
As streams of water in the streets?

Why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an immoral woman
And embrace the bosom of an outsider (pagan)?

When He set for the sea its boundary
So that the waters would not transgress [the boundaries set by] His command,
When He marked out the foundations of the earth—

A divine decision [given by God] is on the lips of the king [as His representative];
His mouth should not be unfaithful or unjust in judgment.

Train up a child in the way he should go [teaching him to seek God’s wisdom and will for his abilities and talents],
Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

If you have nothing with which to pay [another’s debt when he defaults],
Why should his creditor take your bed from under you?

For it is better that it be said to you, “Come up here,”
Than for you to be placed lower in the presence of the prince,
Whom your eyes have seen.

Even though you pound a [hardened, arrogant] fool [who rejects wisdom] in a mortar with a pestle like grain,
Yet his foolishness will not leave him.

To have regard for one person over another and to show favoritism is not good,
Because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.

I have not learned [skillful and godly] wisdom,
Nor do I have knowledge of the Holy One [who is the source of wisdom].