¹You sons, hear the father's correction,

And pay attention to knowing understanding,

²For I give you good learning.

Do not forsake my instruction,

³For I was a son to my father,

And tender and special in my mother's eyes.

⁴And he taught me, and he said to me,

“Let your heart take hold of my words;

Keep my commandments and live.

⁵Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding;

Do not forget,

And do not turn aside from the sayings

Which I utter.

⁶Do not forsake it,

And it will keep you;

Love it,

And it will guard you.

⁷The prime thing is wisdom.

Acquire wisdom,

And among all your acquisitions,

Acquire understanding.

⁸Extol it,

And it will exalt you;

It will honour you

If you embrace it.

⁹It will give a garland of grace to your head;

It will endow you with a crown of glory.”

¹⁰Hear, my son, and receive my sayings,

And your years of life will be many.

¹¹I have instructed you in the way of wisdom;

I have guided you onto straight paths.

¹²As you walk,

Your step will not be in a strait,

And if you run,

You will not stumble.

¹³Take hold of correction;

Do not let go of it.

Guard it,

For it is your life.

¹⁴Do not go onto the path of the wicked,

And do not proceed on the way of the evil.

¹⁵Avoid it,

Do not cross over to it;

Turn aside from it,

And pass by.

¹⁶For they cannot sleep

Unless they act wickedly.

And their sleep eludes them

Unless they cause others to stumble.

¹⁷For they eat bread of wickedness

And drink wine of violence.

¹⁸But the way of the righteous is like a shining light;

It shines more and more

Until reaching its zenith.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like thick darkness;

They don't know what they are stumbling on.

²⁰My son, pay attention to my words;

Incline your ear to my sayings.

²¹Do not let them go out of your sight;

Keep them inside your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them

And healing to all one's flesh.

²³Guard your heart most rigorously,

For from it are the ways out to life.

²⁴Rid yourself of perverse speech,

And distance yourself from wayward talk.

²⁵Let your eyes look straight on,

And let your eyelids point straight in front of you.

²⁶Weigh up the path of your feet,

And let all your ways be steadfast.

²⁷Do not deviate to the right or left;

Move your feet away from evil.