Proverbs 4

¹ Listen, sons, to a father’s instruction. Pay attention and know understanding;

² for I give you sound learning. Don’t forsake my law.

³ For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.

⁴ He taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments, and live.

⁵ Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don’t forget, and don’t deviate from the words of my mouth.

⁶ Don’t forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you.

⁷ Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.

⁸ Esteem her, and she will exalt you. She will bring you to honor when you embrace her.

⁹ She will give to your head a garland of grace. She will deliver a crown of splendor to you.”

¹⁰ Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many.

¹¹ I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in straight paths.

¹² When you go, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble.

¹³ Take firm hold of instruction. Don’t let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.

¹⁴ Don’t enter into the path of the wicked. Don’t walk in the way of evil men.

¹⁵ Avoid it, and don’t pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on.

¹⁶ For they don’t sleep unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.

¹⁷ For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸ But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light that shines more and more until the perfect day.

¹⁹ The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.

²⁰ My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings.

²¹ Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart.

²² For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body.

²³ Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.

²⁴ Put away from yourself a perverse mouth. Put corrupt lips far from you.

²⁵ Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

²⁶ Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established.

²⁷ Don’t turn to the right hand nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.

Around Proverbs 4

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Proverbs as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

Two voices call from the high places of a city, and both want the same passers-by. “Wisdom has built her house”, the ninth chapter says. She has set her table and sent out her maidens, and she calls the simple to leave their simple ways. Across the street, a loud and undisciplined woman, Folly, sits at her door and calls the very same crowd.

That picture captures the whole book. Proverbs gathers short sayings and longer poems about living wisely. Its starting point is that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” It contrasts the wise and the foolish in speech, work, money, friendship, marriage and the raising of children.

In the opening chapters wisdom is pictured as a woman calling out in the streets. The book ends with a poem in praise of a capable wife.

Background

Most of the sayings are linked with Solomon. Others are credited to Agur, to King Lemuel and to unnamed wise teachers, and one section was copied by officials of King Hezekiah about two centuries after Solomon (25:1). Similar collections of wisdom are known from Egypt and Mesopotamia.

How Christians read it

A proverb states what is generally true, not a guarantee for every case. Reading the sayings as promises leads to disappointment, and the books of Job and Ecclesiastes show the exceptions. The New Testament speaks of Christ as the wisdom of God, and many Christians read the figure of wisdom in chapter 8 in that light.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 19 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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