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Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.
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For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.
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For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
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He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.
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Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
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Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.
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Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
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Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
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She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
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Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
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I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.
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When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
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Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.
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Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
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Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
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For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
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For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
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But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
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The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
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My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
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Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
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For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
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Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
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Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
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Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
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Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.
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Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
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My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
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That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
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For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
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But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
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Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
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Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
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Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
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Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
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Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
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Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
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And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
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And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
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And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
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I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
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Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
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Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
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Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
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Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
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Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
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And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
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For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
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His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
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He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
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My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
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Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
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Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
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Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
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Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
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Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
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Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
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Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
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How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
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Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
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So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
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A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.
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He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;
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Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.
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Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.
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These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
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A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
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An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
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A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
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My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
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Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.
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When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
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For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
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To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
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Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
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For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.
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Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
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Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
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So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
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Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
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But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
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But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
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A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
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For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
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He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.
