Anonymous (Septuagint) · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| In three things I took delight, and I rose up beautiful before the Lord and before men: harmony among brothers, friendship among neighbors, and a wife and husband who live well together.
2| But three kinds of people my soul hated, and I was greatly disgusted with their lives: a poor man who is proud, a rich man who is a liar, and an old man who is an adulterer, lacking understanding.
3| If you have gathered nothing in your youth, how then will you find anything in your old age?
4| How fitting it is for gray hairs to give judgment, and for elders to know how to counsel!
5| How fitting is wisdom in the aged, and understanding and counsel in men of honor!
6| Rich experience is the crown of the aged, and reverence for the Lord is what makes them glorious.
7| Nine things I have counted blessed in my heart, and a tenth I will speak with my tongue: a man who rejoices in his children, and who lives to see the downfall of his enemies;
8| blessed is he who lives with a sensible wife, and he who has not slipped with his tongue, and he who has not served one unworthy of him;
9| blessed is he who has found prudence, and he who tells it into ears that listen;
10| how great is he who has found wisdom! Yet he is not above the one who fears the Lord;
11| the fear of the Lord surpasses everything; the one who holds fast to it, to what shall he be compared?
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13| Any wound, but not a wound of the heart! Any wickedness, but not the wickedness of a woman!
14| Any assault, but not the assault of those who hate! Any vengeance, but not the vengeance of enemies!
15| No venom surpasses that of a serpent's head, and no hostility surpasses an enemy's hatred.
16| Better to share a den with a lion or a dragon than to live in a house with a wicked woman.
17| The wickedness of a woman changes her appearance, and darkens her face like a sackcloth.
18| In the midst of his companions her husband sinks down, and hearing of it he sighs bitterly.
19| All wickedness is small compared to the wickedness of a woman — may the lot of the sinner fall upon her!
20| A sandy ascent to the feet of an old man — such is a talkative wife to a quiet husband.
21| Do not fall for a woman's beauty, and do not desire a woman for what she has.
22| Wrath and shamelessness and great disgrace come when a wife supports her husband.
23| A humbled heart and a gloomy face and a wounded heart — this is a wicked wife; hands that hang limp and knees that give way — she is one who brings her husband no happiness.
24| From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die.
25| Do not give water an outlet, nor a wicked wife authority;
26| if she will not walk as your hand directs, cut her off from your flesh.