Through My Bible Yr 03 – September 27

Proverbs 4 – 5

Through My Bible – September 27

Proverbs 4 – 5 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

An Address to Sons:
Your Parents Teach You Wisdom

Proverbs 4

1 Listen, you sons, to a father’s discipline.
Pay attention so that you will gain discernment,
2 because I have given you good instruction.
Do not abandon my teaching.
3 When I was a son living with my father,
a tender and only child with my mother,
4 he used to instruct me and say to me,
“Cling to my words with all your heart.
Obey my commands so that you may live.
5 Acquire wisdom. Acquire understanding.
Do not forget,
and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not abandon it, and it will watch over you.
Love it and it will guard you.”

7 The beginning of wisdom is to obtain Wisdom.
Give up everything you have, in order to gain Understanding.
8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you.
She will honor you when you embrace her.
9 She will set a garland of grace on your head.
She will present you with a beautiful crown.

Fifth Address to a Son:
The Difference Between the Wicked and the Righteous

10 Listen, my son, and accept my words,
so that the years of your life will be many.
11 I have instructed you in the way of wisdom.
I have led you along straight paths. [1]
12 When you walk, your stride will not be hindered.
Even if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Hold on to discipline. Do not let go.
Guard it, because it is your life.
14 Do not travel on the path of the wicked.
Do not walk in the way of evil people.
15 Avoid it! Do not travel on it!
Turn away from it. Pass it by.
16 For they cannot sleep
    unless they have been doing wrong,
and they are robbed of sleep
    unless they are making someone stumble,
17 because wickedness is the food they eat,
and violence is the wine they drink.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
shining brighter and brighter until it is day.
19 The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness.
They never know where they will stumble.

Sixth Address to a Son:
Advice for a Righteous Life

20 My son, pay attention to my words.
Open your ears to what I say.
21 Do not let them escape from your sight.
Keep them deep in your heart,
22 because they are life for those who find them
and healing for the entire body. [2]
23 Above all else, guard your heart carefully,
because your life flows from it.
24 Turn your mouth away from perverted speech,
and keep devious lips far away from you.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead.
Let your gaze [3] be directly in front of you.
26 Make a level pathway for your feet,
and all your ways will be secure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left.
Turn your feet away from evil.

Seventh Address to a Son:
Wisdom Teaches You to Avoid Adultery

Proverbs 5

1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
Open your ears to my understanding,
2 so that you may hold on to insight,
so your lips may guard knowledge,
3 because the lips of an immoral woman drip with honey,
and her words are [4] as smooth as olive oil,
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood [5]
and as sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death.
Her steps lead to hell. [6]
6 She gives no thought to the path of life. [7]
Her ways wander, but she doesn’t realize it.
7 Now, you sons, listen to me.
Do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her.
Do not go near the doorway of her house.
9 If you do, you will give your wealth to others
and your years to a cruel person.
10 If you do, your work will satisfy strangers,
and the results of your labor will end up in another man’s house.
11 You will groan when your end comes,
when your body and flesh are consumed.
12 Then you will say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,
and my heart despised warnings!
13 I did not listen to my teachers’ voices,
and I did not open my ears to hear my instructors.
14 I soon [8] reached total ruin
in the midst of the assembly of the community.”

Encouragement to Faithfulness in Marriage

15 Drink water from your own cistern.
Drink running water from your own well.
16 Why should the water from your springs flow out into the street,
your streams of water into the public squares?
17 They should be yours, yours alone.
They are not for strangers to share with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed.
Obtain your joy from the wife you married in your youth,
19     who is a loving doe and a graceful deer.
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times.
Always be intoxicated with her love.
20 Why should you be led astray, my son, by an immoral woman?
Why embrace a woman who is not your wife?
21 For the ways of a man are in front of the eyes of the Lord,
and he weighs all of his paths.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked man will capture him,
and he will be bound by the ropes of his sin.
23 He will die for lack of discipline,
and he will go astray because of his great stupidity.

Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 4:11 Or on the right track
  2. Proverbs 4:22 Literally all of his flesh
  3. Proverbs 4:25 Literally your eyelids
  4. Proverbs 5:3 Literally her palate is
  5. Proverbs 5:4 Wormwood is a toxic, bitter-tasting drink (absinthe).
  6. Proverbs 5:5 Or the grave. The Hebrew word is sheol.
  7. Proverbs 5:6 Or she does not make the paths of life level
  8. Proverbs 5:14 Or almost

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.