6 Point your kids in the right direction—

when they’re old they won’t be lost.

15 Young people are prone to foolishness and fads;

the cure comes through tough-minded discipline.

1,2 Listen, friends, to some fatherly advice;

sit up and take notice so you’ll know how to live.

I’m giving you good counsel;

don’t let it go in one ear and out the other.

8-19 Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you;

never forget what you learned at your mother’s knee.

Wear their counsel like a winning crown,

like rings on your fingers.

Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you,

don’t go along with them.

If they say—"Let’s go out and raise some hell.

Let’s beat up some old man, mug some old woman.

Let’s pick them clean

and get them ready for their funerals.

We’ll load up on top-quality loot.

We’ll haul it home by the truckload.

Join us for the time of your life!

With us, it’s share and share alike!"—

Oh, friend, don’t give them a second look;

don’t listen to them for a minute.

They’re racing to a very bad end,

hurrying to ruin everything they lay hands on.

Nobody robs a bank

with everyone watching,

Yet that’s what these people are doing—

they’re doing themselves in.

When you grab all you can get, that’s what happens:

the more you get, the less you are.

10-31 A good woman is hard to find,

and worth far more than diamonds.

Her husband trusts her without reserve,

and never has reason to regret it.

Never spiteful, she treats him generously

all her life long.

She shops around for the best yarns and cottons,

and enjoys knitting and sewing.

She’s like a trading ship that sails to faraway places

and brings back exotic surprises.

She’s up before dawn, preparing breakfast

for her family and organizing her day.

She looks over a field and buys it,

then, with money she’s put aside, plants a garden.

First thing in the morning, she dresses for work,

rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.

She senses the worth of her work,

is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.

She’s skilled in the crafts of home and hearth,

diligent in homemaking.

She’s quick to assist anyone in need,

reaches out to help the poor.

She doesn’t worry about her family when it snows;

their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.

She makes her own clothing,

and dresses in colorful linens and silks.

Her husband is greatly respected

when he deliberates with the city fathers.

She designs gowns and sells them,

brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops.

Her clothes are well-made and elegant,

and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.

When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say,

and she always says it kindly.

She keeps an eye on everyone in her household,

and keeps them all busy and productive.

Her children respect and bless her;

her husband joins in with words of praise:

"Many women have done wonderful things,

but you’ve outclassed them all!"

Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades.

The woman to be admired and praised

is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God.

Give her everything she deserves!

Adorn her life with praises!

6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!

6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.

10 That day when you stood before God, your God, at Horeb, God said to me, "Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children."

18-21 Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you’ll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.

15 Wise discipline imparts wisdom;

spoiled adolescents embarrass their parents.

17 Discipline your children; you’ll be glad you did—

they’ll turn out delightful to live with.

24 A refusal to correct is a refusal to love;

love your children by disciplining them.

13,14 Don’t be afraid to correct your young ones;

a spanking won’t kill them.

A good spanking, in fact, might save them

from something worse than death.

18 Discipline your children while you still have the chance;

indulging them destroys them.

4-11 In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed! So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,

but don’t be crushed by it either.

It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;

the child he embraces, he also corrects.

God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off big-time, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

20 Children, do what your parents tell you. This delights the Master no end.

21 Parents, don’t come down too hard on your children or you’ll crush their spirits.

4 Fathers, don’t frustrate your children with no-win scenarios. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.

14-17 But don’t let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk! There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.

14-17 But don’t let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk! There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.

1-4 Listen, dear friends, to God’s truth,

bend your ears to what I tell you.

I’m chewing on the morsel of a proverb;

I’ll let you in on the sweet old truths,

Stories we heard from our fathers,

counsel we learned at our mother’s knee.

We’re not keeping this to ourselves,

we’re passing it along to the next generation—

God’s fame and fortune,

the marvelous things he has done.

1-4 Listen, dear friends, to God’s truth,

bend your ears to what I tell you.

I’m chewing on the morsel of a proverb;

I’ll let you in on the sweet old truths,

Stories we heard from our fathers,

counsel we learned at our mother’s knee.

We’re not keeping this to ourselves,

we’re passing it along to the next generation—

God’s fame and fortune,

the marvelous things he has done.

1-4 Listen, dear friends, to God’s truth,

bend your ears to what I tell you.

I’m chewing on the morsel of a proverb;

I’ll let you in on the sweet old truths,

Stories we heard from our fathers,

counsel we learned at our mother’s knee.

We’re not keeping this to ourselves,

we’re passing it along to the next generation—

God’s fame and fortune,

the marvelous things he has done.

5-8 He planted a witness in Jacob,

set his Word firmly in Israel,

Then commanded our parents

to teach it to their children

So the next generation would know,

and all the generations to come—

Know the truth and tell the stories

so their children can trust in God,

Never forget the works of God

but keep his commands to the letter.

Heaven forbid they should be like their parents,

bullheaded and bad,

A fickle and faithless bunch

who never stayed true to God.

8 Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—

how good God is.

Blessed are you who run to him.

9 Worship God if you want the best;

worship opens doors to all his goodness.

10 Young lions on the prowl get hungry,

but God-seekers are full of God.

11 Come, children, listen closely;

I’ll give you a lesson in God worship.

11 Come, children, listen closely;

I’ll give you a lesson in God worship.

3-5 Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift?

the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?

Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows

are the children of a vigorous youth.

Oh, how blessed are you parents,

with your quivers full of children!

Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you;

you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep.

13-15 One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: "Let the children alone, don’t prevent them from coming to me. God’s kingdom is made up of people like these." After laying hands on them, he left.

12 Honor your father and mother so that you’ll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.

1-5 "But for now, dear servant Jacob, listen—

yes, you, Israel, my personal choice.

God who made you has something to say to you;

the God who formed you in the womb wants to help you.

Don’t be afraid, dear servant Jacob,

Jeshurun, the one I chose.

For I will pour water on the thirsty ground

and send streams coursing through the parched earth.

I will pour my Spirit into your descendants

and my blessing on your children.

They shall sprout like grass on the prairie,

like willows alongside creeks.

This one will say, ‘I am God’s,’

and another will go by the name Jacob;

That one will write on his hand ‘God’s property’—

and be proud to be called Israel."

16-19 O Master, these are the conditions in which people live,

and yes, in these very conditions my spirit is still alive—

fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life!

It seems it was good for me

to go through all those troubles.

Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline.

You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing.

But my sins you let go of,

threw them over your shoulder—good riddance!

The dead don’t thank you,

and choirs don’t sing praises from the morgue.

Those buried six feet under

don’t witness to your faithful ways.

It’s the living—live men, live women—who thank you,

just as I’m doing right now.

Parents give their children

full reports on your faithful ways.

* * *

11-17 "Afflicted city, storm-battered, unpitied:

I’m about to rebuild you with stones of turquoise,

Lay your foundations with sapphires,

construct your towers with rubies,

Your gates with jewels,

and all your walls with precious stones.

All your children will have God for their teacher—

what a mentor for your children!

You’ll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,

far from any trouble—nothing to fear!

far from terror—it won’t even come close!

If anyone attacks you,

don’t for a moment suppose that I sent them,

And if any should attack,

nothing will come of it.

I create the blacksmith

who fires up his forge

and makes a weapon designed to kill.

I also create the destroyer—

but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged.

Any accuser who takes you to court

will be dismissed as a liar.

This is what God’s servants can expect.

I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best."

God’s Decree.