¹⁸ Whoso is refusing instruction -- poverty and shame, And whoso is observing reproof is honoured.

⁵ A fool despiseth the instruction of his father, And whoso is regarding reproof is prudent.

³¹ An ear that is hearing the reproof of life Doth lodge among the wise.

³² Whoso is refusing instruction is despising his soul, And whoso is hearing reproof Is getting understanding.

¹ Whoso is loving instruction, is loving knowledge, And whoso is hating reproof `is' brutish.

²⁵ See, may ye not refuse him who is speaking, for if those did not escape who refused him who upon earth was divinely speaking -- much less we who do turn away from him who `speaketh' from heaven,

³ Jehovah, Thine eyes, are they not on stedfastness? Thou hast smitten them, and they have not grieved, Thou hast consumed them, They have refused to receive instruction, They made their faces harder than a rock, They have refused to turn back.

⁴ And I -- I said, `Surely these `are' poor, They have been foolish, For they have not known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.

⁵ I get me to the great, and I speak with them, For they have known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.' Surely they together have broken the yoke, They have drawn away the bands.

⁶ Therefore smitten them hath a lion out of the forest, A wolf of the deserts doth spoil them, A leopard is watching over their cities, Every one who is going out of them is torn, For many have been their transgressions, Mighty have been their backslidings.

⁷ For this I am not propitious to thee, Thy sons have forsaken Me, And are satisfied by that which is not god, I satisfy them, and they commit adultery, And at the house of a harlot They gather themselves together.

⁸ Fed horses -- they have been early risers, Each to the wife of his neighbour they neigh.

⁹ For these do I not lay a charge? An affirmation of Jehovah, And on a nation such as this, Doth not My soul avenge itself?

¹² A ring of gold, and an ornament of pure gold, `Is' the wise reprover to an attentive ear.

⁶ Many entreat the face of the noble, And all have made friendship to a man of gifts.

¹³ Whoso is despising the Word is destroyed for it, And whoso is fearing the Command is repayed.

⁹ Give to the wise, and he is wiser still, Make known to the righteous, And he increaseth learning.

⁹ Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce,

¹⁰ Lest strangers be filled `with' thy power, And thy labours in the house of a stranger,

¹¹ And thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food,

¹² And hast said, `How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised,

¹³ And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear.

¹⁴ As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company.

⁵ The righteous doth beat me `in' kindness. And doth reprove me, Oil of the head my head disalloweth not, For still my prayer `is' about their vexations.