To receive moral instruction in skillful living, in righteousness, justice, and equity.

For they will be like an elegant garland on your head, and like pendants around your neck.

If they say, "Come with us! We will lie in wait to shed blood; we will ambush an innocent person capriciously.

Join with us! We will all share equally in what we steal."

Surely it is futile to spread a net in plain sight of any bird,

but these men lie in wait for their own blood, they ambush their own lives!

Wisdom calls out in the street, she shouts loudly in the plazas;

at the head of the noisy streets she calls, in the entrances of the gates in the city she utters her words:

"How long will you simpletons love naivet?? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?

However, because I called but you refused to listen, because I stretched out my hand but no one paid attention,

so I myself will laugh when disaster strikes you, I will mock when what you dread comes,

when what you dread comes like a whirlwind, and disaster strikes you like a devastating storm, when distressing trouble comes on you.

Therefore they will eat from the fruit of their way, and they will be stuffed full of their own counsel.

But the one who listens to me will live in security, and will be at ease from the dread of harm.

who leave the upright paths to walk on the dark ways,

who delight in doing evil, they rejoice in perverse evil;

whose paths are morally crooked, and who are devious in their ways;

None who go in to her will return, nor will they reach the paths of life.

So you will walk in the way of good people, and will keep on the paths of the righteous.

For the upright will reside in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it,

Do not let truth and mercy leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

Then you will find favor and good understanding, in the sight of God and people.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.

Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will make your paths straight.

Do not be wise in your own estimation; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

then your barns will be filled completely, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

For the Lord disciplines those he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who obtains understanding.

Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.

Then you will walk on your way with security, and you will not stumble.

When you lie down you will not be filled with fear; when you lie down your sleep will be pleasant.

You will not be afraid of sudden disaster, or when destruction overtakes the wicked;

for the Lord will be the source of your confidence, and he will guard your foot from being caught in a trap.

Do not withhold good from those who need it, when you have the ability to help.

Do not say to your neighbor, "Go! Return tomorrow and I will give it," when you have it with you at the time.

Do not plot evil against your neighbor when he dwells by you unsuspectingly.

for one who goes astray is an abomination to the Lord, but he reveals his intimate counsel to the upright.

The Lord's curse is on the household of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.

When I was a son to my father, a tender only child before my mother,

She will place a fair garland on your head; she will bestow a beautiful crown on you."

I will guide you in the way of wisdom and I will lead you in upright paths.

When you walk, your steps will not be hampered, and when you run, you will not stumble.

Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; protect it, because it is your life.

Do not enter the path of the wicked or walk in the way of those who are evil.

Avoid it, do not go on it; turn away from it, and go on.

For they eat bread gained from wickedness and drink wine obtained from violence.

for they are life to those who find them and healing to one's entire body.

Let your eyes look directly in front of you and let your gaze look straight before you.

in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge.

but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

And at the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are wasted away.

I almost came to complete ruin in the midst of the whole congregation!"

Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well.

Should your springs be dispersed outside, your streams of water in the wide plazas?

May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in your young wife --

But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a different woman?

For the ways of a person are in front of the Lord's eyes, and the Lord weighs all that person's paths.

The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities, and he will be held by the cords of his own sin.

then, my child, do this in order to deliver yourself, because you have fallen into your neighbor's power: go, humble yourself, and appeal firmly to your neighbor.

yet it prepares its food in the summer; it gathers at the harvest what it will eat.

How long, you sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from your sleep?

and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man.

he plots evil with perverse thoughts in his heart, he spreads contention at all times.

Therefore, his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.

There are six things that the Lord hates, even seven things that are an abomination to him:

Bind them on your heart continually; fasten them around your neck.

When you walk about, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will talk to you.

Do not lust in your heart for her beauty, and do not let her captivate you with her alluring eyes;

for on account of a prostitute one is brought down to a loaf of bread, but the wife of another man preys on your precious life.

Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

So it is with the one who has sex with his neighbor's wife; no one who touches her will escape punishment.

People do not despise a thief when he steals to fulfill his need when he is hungry.

A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks wisdom, whoever does it destroys his own life.

for jealousy kindles a husband's rage, and he will not show mercy when he takes revenge.

My child, keep my words and treasure up my commands in your own keeping.

Bind them on your forearm; write them on the tablet of your heart.

in the twilight, the evening, in the dark of the night.

at one time outside, at another in the wide plazas, and by every corner she lies in wait.)

For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a journey of some distance.

Suddenly he went after her like an ox that goes to the slaughter, like a stag prancing into a trapper's snare

till an arrow pierces his liver -- like a bird hurrying into a trap, and he does not know that it will cost him his life.

All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing in them twisted or crooked.

I walk in the path of righteousness, in the pathway of justice,

When there were no deep oceans I was born, when there were no springs overflowing with water;

before the mountains were set in place -- before the hills -- I was born,

When he established the heavens, I was there; when he marked out the horizon over the face of the deep,

when he established the clouds above, when the fountains of the deep grew strong,

when he gave the sea his decree that the waters should not pass over his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and delighting in its people.

Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching at my doors day by day, waiting beside my doorway.

For the one who finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord.

But the one who does not find me brings harm to himself; all who hate me love death."

She has prepared her meat, she has mixed her wine; she also has arranged her table.

She has sent out her female servants; she calls out on the highest places of the city.

"Whoever is naive, let him turn in here," she says to those who lack understanding.

"Come, eat some of my food, and drink some of the wine I have mixed.

Abandon your foolish ways so that you may live, and proceed in the way of understanding."

The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and acknowledging the Holy One is understanding.

If you are wise, you are wise to your own advantage, but if you are a mocker, you alone must bear it.

So she sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city,