An admonition of a father to his son. Acquiring wisdom
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Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend that you may know prudence.
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I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law.
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For I also was my father’s son, tender and as an only son in the sight of my mother:
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And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live.
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Get wisdom, get prudence: forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.
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Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee.
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The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence.
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Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.
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She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown.
The way of the wise and the way of the unrighteous
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Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee.
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I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity:
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Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest thou shalt not meet a stumblingblock.
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Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life.
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Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee.
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Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it.
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For they sleep not except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall.
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They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.
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But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day.
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The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall.
A father's admonition
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My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings.
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Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart:
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For they are life to those that find them, and health to all flesh.
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With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.
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Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee.
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Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.
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Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established.
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Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knoweth the ways that are on the right hand: but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But he will make thy courses straight, he will bring forward thy ways in peace.