| New JerusalemNew Jerusalem Bible — The New Jerusalem Bible is an update of the Jerusalem Bible (1966). The new edition is considered more literal, but marred by inclusive language. It is the most popular Catholic bible outside the United States. | Douay-RheimsDouay-Rheims Bible — The New Testament was published at Rheims, France (1582), the Old Testament at Douay (1609) by exiled English Catholic scholars. Bishop Challoner updated it extensively mid-18th century. The Douay-Rheims served as the English bible for the Catholic world for centuries. This text set is from an approved 1914 U.S. printing. |
| 1 Listen, my children, to a father's instruction; pay attention, and learn what understanding is. | Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend that you may know prudence. |
| 2 What I am offering you is sound doctrine: do not forsake my teaching. | I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law. |
| 3 I too was once a child with a father, in my mother's eyes a tender child, unique. | For I also was my father's son, tender and as an only son in the sight of my mother: |
| 4 This was what he used to teach me, 'Let your heart treasure what I have to say, keep my principles and you will live; | And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live. |
| 5 acquire wisdom, acquire understanding, never forget her, never deviate from my words. | Get wisdom, get prudence: forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. |
| 6 Do not desert her, she will keep you safe; love her, she will watch over you. | Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee. |
| 7 The first principle of wisdom is: acquire wisdom; at the cost of all you have, acquire understanding! | The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence. |
| 8 Hold her close, and she will make you great; embrace her, and she will be your pride; | Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her. |
| 9 she will provide a graceful garland for your head, bestow a crown of honour on you.' | She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown. |
| 10 Listen, my child, take my words to heart, and the years of your life will be multiplied. | Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee. |
| 11 I have educated you in the ways of wisdom, I have guided you along the path of honesty. | I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity: |
| 12 When you walk, your going will be unhindered, if you run, you will not stumble. | Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest thou shalt not meet a stumblingblock. |
| 13 Hold fast to discipline, never let her go, keep your eyes on her, she is your life. | Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life. |
| 14 Do not follow the path of the wicked, do not walk the way that the evil go. | Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee. |
| 15 Avoid it, do not take it, turn your back on it, pass it by. | Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it. |
| 16 For they cannot sleep unless they have first done wrong, they miss their sleep if they have not made someone stumble; | For they sleep not except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall. |
| 17 for the bread of wickedness is what they eat, and the wine of violence is what they drink. | They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity. |
| 18 The path of the upright is like the light of dawn, its brightness growing to the fullness of day; | 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 as dark as night, they cannot tell the obstacles they stumble over. | The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall. |
| 20 My child, pay attention to what I am telling you, listen carefully to my words; | My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings. |
| 21 do not let them out of your sight, keep them deep in your heart. | Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart: |
| 22 For they are life to those who find them and health to all humanity. | For they are life to those that find them, and health to all flesh. |
| 23 More than all else, keep watch over your heart, since here are the wellsprings of life. | With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it. |
| 24 Turn your back on the mouth that misleads, keep your distance from lips that deceive. | Remove from thee a forward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee. |
| 25 Let your eyes be fixed ahead, your gaze be straight before you. | Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps. |
| 26 Let the path you tread be level and all your ways be firm. | Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established. |
| 27 Turn neither to right nor to left, keep your foot clear of evil. | 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. |
