Proverbs

1hãy để ý kỹ người đối diện.

2Nếu con vốn tham ăn, hãy đặt dao kề cổ.

3vì đó là thứ đồ ăn phỉnh gạt.

4và cũng đừng bận tâm đến nó ;

5tựa đại bàng bay tới trời cao.

6đừng thèm thuồng cao lương mỹ vị của hắn.

7Nhưng đâu phải hắn có lòng với con.

8Mất công toi bao nhiêu lời tốt đẹp,

9vì nó sẽ khinh dể lời lẽ khôn ngoan của con.

10cũng đừng xâm phạm cánh đồng của trẻ mồ côi,

11chính Người sẽ biện hộ cho chúng chống lại con.

12và lắng tai nghe điều hiểu biết.

13nếu con đánh nó bằng roi, nó đâu có chết.

14Lấy roi đánh nó là cứu nó khỏi âm ty.

15thì lòng dạ thầy cũng vui sướng.

16thì tâm hồn thầy sẽ mừng rỡ hân hoan.

17nhưng hãy luôn kính sợ ĐỨC CHÚA,

18và niềm hy vọng của con sẽ không thành mây khói.

19hãy hướng lòng con theo chính đạo.

20với những kẻ chỉ mê ăn mê nhậu.

21kẻ mơ màng buồn ngủ sẽ khố rách áo ôm.

22đừng khinh dể mẹ con khi người già yếu.

23con hãy mua lấy chứ đừng bán đi.

24đấng sinh thành người khôn sẽ hoan hỷ.

25và người sinh ra con được mừng rỡ.

26và hãy để mắt noi gương thầy.

27và phụ nữ ngoại tình là giếng hẹp.

28hòng tăng số những kẻ bất trung trong nhân loại.

29Ai có đôi mắt đỏ ngầu ?

30là người đã nếm đủ thứ rượu ngon.

31óng ánh trong ly, rồi trôi xuống cổ.

32như nọc độc hổ mang.

33lòng con tuôn ra bao chuyện nhảm nhí.

34lắc lư trên cột buồm.

35để tôi lại kiếm thêm ly nữa ?”

1When thou shalt sit to eat with a prince, consider diligently what is set before thy face.

2And put a knife to thy throat, if it be so that thou have thy soul in thy own power.

3Be not desirous of his meats, in which is the bread of deceit.

4Labour not to be rich: but set bounds to thy prudence.

5Lift not up thy eyes to riches which thou canst not have: because they shall make themselves wings like those of an eagle, and shall fly towards heaven.

6Eat not with an envious man, and desire not his meats:

7Because like a soothsayer, and diviner, he thinketh that which he knoweth not. Eat and drink, will he say to thee: and his mind is not with thee.

8The meats which thou hadst eaten, thou shalt vomit up: and shalt loose thy beautiful words.

9Speak not in the ears of fools: because they will despise the instruction of thy speech.

10Touch not the bounds of little ones: and enter not into the field of the fatherless:

11For their near kinsman is strong: and he will judge their cause against thee.

12Let thy heart apply itself to instruction: and thy ears to words of knowledge.

13Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die.

14Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.

15My son, if thy mind be wise, my heart shall rejoice with thee:

16And my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips shall speak what is right.

17Let not thy heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long:

18Because thou shalt have hope in the latter end, and thy expectation shall not be taken away.

19Hear thou, my son, and be wise: and guide thy mind in the way.

20Be not in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in their revellings, who contribute flesh to eat:

21Because they that give themselves to drinking, and that club together shall be consumed; and drowsiness shall be clothed with rags.

22Hearken to thy father, that beget thee: and despise not thy mother when she is old.

23Buy truth, and do not sell wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

24The father of the just rejoiceth greatly: he that hath begotten a wise son, shall have joy in him.

25Let thy father, and thy mother be joyful, and let her rejoice that bore thee.

26My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways.

27For a harlot is a deep ditch: and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

28She lieth in wait in the way as a robber, and him whom she shall see unwary, she will kill.

29Who hath woe? whose father hath woe? who hath contentions? who falls into pits? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

30Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink of their cups.

31Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the colour thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth in pleasantly,

32But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.

33Thy eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.

34And thou shalt be as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, and as a pilot fast asleep, when the stern is lost.

35And thou shalt say: They have beaten me, but I was not sensible of pain: they drew me, and I felt not: when shall I awake, and find wine again?