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4:1  Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
4:2  for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching.
4:3  When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother’s favourite,
4:4  he taught me, and said to me, ‘Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.
4:5  Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
4:6  Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.
4:7  The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight.
4:8  Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honour you if you embrace her.
4:9  She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.’
4:10  Hear, my child, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.
4:11  I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
4:12  When you walk, your step will not be hampered; and if you run, you will not stumble.
4:13  Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
4:14  Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evildoers.
4:15  Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.
4:16  For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
4:17  For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
4:18  But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
4:19  The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what they stumble over.
4:20  My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
4:21  Do not let them escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.
4:22  For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.
4:23  Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
4:24  Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.
4:25  Let your eyes look directly forwards, and your gaze be straight before you.
4:26  Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure.
4:27  Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.