Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father,
And attend to know understanding:
For I give you good doctrine;
Forsake ye not my {Or, teaching}law.
For I was a son unto my father,
Tender and {Hebrew: an only one.}only beloved in the sight of my mother.
And he taught me, and said unto me:
Let thy heart retain my words;
Keep my commandments, and live;
Get wisdom, get understanding;
Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth;
Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee;
Love her, and she will keep thee.
{Or, The beginning of wisdom is, Get wisdom}Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom;
Yea, with all {Or, thou hast gotten}thy getting get understanding.
Exalt her, and she will promote thee;
She will bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her.
She will give to thy head a chaplet of grace;
A crown of {Or, glory}beauty will she deliver to thee.
Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings;
And the years of thy life shall be many.
I have taught thee in the way of wisdom;
I have led thee in paths of uprightness.
When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened;
And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go:
Keep her; for she is thy life.
Enter not into the path of the wicked,
And walk not in the way of evil men.
Avoid it, pass not by it;
Turn from it, and pass on.
For they sleep not, except they do evil;
And their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
For they eat the bread of wickedness,
And drink the wine of violence.
But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light,
That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
The way of the wicked is as darkness:
They know not at what they stumble.
My son, attend to my words;
Incline thine ear unto my sayings.
Let them not depart from thine eyes;
Keep them in the midst of thy heart.
For they are life unto those that find them,
And health to all their flesh.
Keep thy heart {Or, above all that thou guardest}with all diligence;
For out of it are the issues of life.
Put away from thee a wayward mouth,
And perverse lips put far from thee.
Let thine eyes look right on,
And let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
{Or, Weigh carefully}Make level the path of thy feet,
And let all thy ways be {Or, ordered aright}established.
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left:
Remove thy foot from evil.
Querverweise zu Sprüche 4,2 Spr 4,2
Hear, for I will speak excellent things;And the opening of my lips shall be right things.
For my mouth shall utter truth;And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth {Or, are righteousness}are in righteousness;There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.
They are all plain to him that understandeth,And right to them that find knowledge.
And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Jehovah searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
Have not I written unto thee {The word is doubtful. Another reading is, heretofore.}excellent things {Or, in}Of counsels and knowledge,
But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;
To make thee know {Or, of a certainty the words &c.}the certainty of the words of truth,That thou mayest carry back words of truth to them that send thee?
If his children forsake my law,And walk not in mine ordinances;
If they {Hebrew: profane.}break my statutes,And keep not my commandments;
Then will I visit their transgression with the rod,And their iniquity with stripes.
My doctrine shall drop as the rain;My speech shall distil as the dew,As the small rain upon the tender grass,And as the showers upon the herb.
My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart;And that which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.Hear this, all ye peoples;Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world,
Both low and high,Rich and poor together.
My mouth shall speak wisdom;And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
Jesus therefore answered them and said, My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me.
If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself.
If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed until now:
holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in the {Greek: healthful.}sound {Or, teaching}doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers.