Proverbs 3

¹My son, forget not my law, and let thy heart keep my precepts.

²For they shall add to thee length of days, and years of life, and peace.

³Let not mercy and truth leave thee, put them about thy throat and write them in the tables of thy heart:

⁴and thou shalt find grace; and good discipline before God and men.

⁵Have confidence in our Lord with all thy heart and lean not upon thine own prudence.

⁶In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps.

⁷Be not wise in thine own conceit: fear God, and depart from evil:

⁸for it shall be health to thy navel, and watering of thy bones.

⁹Honour our Lord with thy substance, and give to him of the first of all thy fruits:

¹⁰and thy barns shall be replenished with fullness, and thy presses shall run-over with wine.

¹¹My son, cast not away the discipline of our Lord: neither do thou faint when thou art chastised of him:

¹²for whom our Lord loveth he chastiseth: and as a father in the son he pleaseth himself.

¹³Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and floweth with prudence:

¹⁴better is the purchasing thereof than merchandise of silver, and her fruit than chief and the purest gold:

¹⁵she is more precious than all riches: and all things that are desired, are not able to be compared with her.

¹⁶Length of days in her right hand, & in her left hand riches and glory.

¹⁷Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths peaceable.

¹⁸She is a tree of life to them that shall apprehend her: and he that shall hold her is blessed.

¹⁹Our Lord by wisdom foundeth the earth, established the heavens by prudence.

²⁰By his wisdom the depths have broken forth, and the clouds wax thick with dew.

²¹My son, let not these things depart from thine eyes: keep the law & counsel:

²²and there shall be life to thy soul, and grace to thy jaws.

²³Then shalt thou walk confidently in thy way, and thy foot shall not stumble:

²⁴if thou sleep, thou shalt not fear: thou shalt rest, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

²⁵Dread not at sudden terror, and the power of the impious falling upon thee.

²⁶For our Lord will be at thy side, and will keep thy foot that thou be not taken.

²⁷Do not prohibit him to do good, that is able: if thou be able, thyself also do good.

²⁸Say not to thy friend: go, and return; and tomorrow I will give to thee: whereas thou mayst give forthwith.

²⁹Practise not evil against thy friend, when he hath affiance in thee.

³⁰Contend not against man without cause, whereas he hath done thee no evil.

³¹Do not envy an unjust man, nor imitate his ways:

³²because every deluder is an abomination of our Lord, and his communication is with the simple.

³³There is poverty from our Lord in the house of the impious: but the habitations of the just shall be blessed.

³⁴He shall delude the deluders, and to the mild he will give grace.

³⁵The wise shall possess glory: the exaltation of fools ignominy.