Proverbs Chapter 4

A further exhortation to seek after wisdom.

English (Douay-Rheims)

1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend, that you may know prudence.
2 I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law.
3 For I also was my father's son, tender, and as an only son in the sight of my mother:
4 And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live.
5 Get wisdom, get prudence: forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth.
6 Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee.
7 The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence.
8 Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.
9 She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown.

10 Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee.
11 I will show thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity:
12 Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not meet a stumbling block.
13 Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life.
14 Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee.
15 Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it.
16 For they sleep not, except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall.
17 They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.
18 But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards, and increaseth even to perfect day.
19 The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall.
20 My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart:
22 For they are life to those that find them, and health to all flesh.
23 With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.
24 Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee.
25 Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.
26 Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established.
27 Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knoweth the ways that are on the right hand: but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But he will make thy courses straight, he will bring forward thy ways in peace.

Old Testament first published 1609 by the English College at Douay
New Testament first published 1582 by the English College at Rheims
Revised and Annotated 1749 by Bishop Richard Challoner
Imprimatur. +James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, September 1, 1899

Latin (Clementine Vulgate)

1 Audite, filii, disciplinam patris,
et attendite ut sciatis prudentiam.
2 Donum bonum tribuam vobis:
legem meam ne derelinquatis.
3 Nam et ego filius fui patris mei,
tenellus et unigenitus coram matre mea.
4 Et docebat me, atque dicebat:
Suscipiat verba mea cor tuum;
custodi præcepta mea, et vives.
5 Posside sapientiam, posside prudentiam:
ne obliviscaris, neque declines a verbis oris mei.
6 Ne dimittas eam, et custodiet te:
dilige eam, et conservabit te.
7 Principium sapientiæ: posside sapientiam,
et in omni possessione tua acquire prudentiam.
8 Arripe illam, et exaltabit te;
glorificaberis ab ea cum eam fueris amplexatus.
9 Dabit capiti tuo augmenta gratiarum,
et corona inclyta proteget te.

10 Audi, fili mi, et suscipe verba mea,
ut multiplicentur tibi anni vitæ.
11 Viam sapientiæ monstrabo tibi;
ducam te per semitas æquitatis:
12 quas cum ingressus fueris, non arctabuntur gressus tui,
et currens non habebis offendiculum.
13 Tene disciplinam, ne dimittas eam;
custodi illam, quia ipsa est vita tua.
14 Ne delecteris in semitis impiorum,
nec tibi placeat malorum via.
15 Fuge ab ea, nec transeas per illam;
declina, et desere eam.
16 Non enim dormiunt nisi malefecerint,
et rapitur somnus ab eis nisi supplantaverint.
17 Comedunt panem impietatis,
et vinum iniquitatis bibunt.
18 Justorum autem semita quasi lux splendens procedit,
et crescit usque ad perfectam diem.
19 Via impiorum tenebrosa;
nesciunt ubi corruant.
20 Fili mi, ausculta sermones meos,
et ad eloquia mea inclina aurem tuam.
21 Ne recedant ab oculis tuis:
custodi ea in medio cordis tui:
22 vita enim sunt invenientibus ea,
et universæ carni sanitas.
23 Omni custodia serva cor tuum,
quia ex ipso vita procedit.
24 Remove a te os pravum,
et detrahentia labia sint procul a te.
25 Oculi tui recta videant,
et palpebræ tuæ præcedant gressus tuos.
26 Dirige semitam pedibus tuis,
et omnes viæ tuæ stabilientur.
27 Ne declines ad dexteram neque ad sinistram;
averte pedem tuum a malo:
vias enim quæ a dextris sunt novit Dominus:
perversæ vero sunt quæ a sinistris sunt.
Ipse autem rectos faciet cursus tuos,
itinera autem tua in pace producet.

Transcribed as part of the Clementine Vulgate Project
Please notify the original transcriber (little.mouth@soon.com) of any errors in this Latin edition