Proverbs 4:13
New International Version
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.

New Living Translation
Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life.

English Standard Version
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.

Berean Standard Bible
Hold on to instruction; do not let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

King James Bible
Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

New King James Version
Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life.

New American Standard Bible
Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.

NASB 1995
Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.

NASB 1977
Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.

Legacy Standard Bible
Seize discipline; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.

Amplified Bible
Take hold of instruction; [actively seek it, grip it firmly and] do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.

Christian Standard Bible
Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

American Standard Version
Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: Keep her; for she is thy life.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Hold my instruction fast and do not forsake her; keep her because she is your life.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Take hold of my instruction; let it not go, - but keep it for thyself for thy life.

Contemporary English Version
Hold firmly to my teaching and never let go. It will mean life for you.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life.

English Revised Version
Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Cling to discipline. Do not relax your grip on it. Keep it because it is your life.

Good News Translation
Always remember what you have learned. Your education is your life--guard it well.

International Standard Version
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go! Guard wisdom, because she is your life!

JPS Tanakh 1917
Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go; Keep her, for she is thy life.

Literal Standard Version
Lay hold on instruction, do not desist, | Keep her, for she [is] your life.

Majority Standard Bible
Hold on to instruction; do not let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

New American Bible
Hold fast to instruction, never let it go; keep it, for it is your life.

NET Bible
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; protect it, because it is your life.

New Revised Standard Version
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.

New Heart English Bible
Take firm hold of instruction. Do not let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.

Webster's Bible Translation
Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

World English Bible
Take firm hold of instruction. Don’t let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.

Young's Literal Translation
Lay hold on instruction, do not desist, Keep her, for she is thy life.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Father's Instruction
12When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; when you run, you will not stumble. 13Hold on to instruction; do not let go. Guard it, for it is your life. 14Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers.…

Cross References
John 6:63
The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

Proverbs 3:18
She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who lay hold of her are blessed.

Proverbs 3:22
They will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck.

Song of Solomon 3:4
I had just passed them when I found the one I love. I held him and would not let go until I had brought him to my mother's house, to the chamber of the one who conceived me.


Treasury of Scripture

Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is your life.

take

Proverbs 3:18
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

Proverbs 23:23
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

Acts 2:42
And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

let

Genesis 32:26
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

Song of Solomon 3:4
It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

Luke 24:27-29
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself…

she

Proverbs 3:22
So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.

Deuteronomy 32:47
For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

Ecclesiastes 7:12
For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.

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Proverbs 4
1. persuades to wisdom
14. and to show wickedness
20. He exhorts to sanctification














(13) For she is thy life.--Comp. 1John 5:12, "He that hath the Son hath life."

Verse 13. - The short but urgent admonitions in this verse may be explained by the knowledge which the father has of the temptations to which youth is exposed and the liability of youth to fall into them, as well as by the fact that Instruction, or Wisdom, is the bestower of life. This latter conviction is the reason why he urges "taking fast hold" of Wisdom. The tenacious grasp with which the shipwrecked sinking sailor lays hold on any spar or plank floating near will illustrate the kind of grasp with which Wisdom is to be held. It is no less a virtue to keep and hold fast a good thing than to get it at the first beginning (Muffet). Instruction (musar), usually of a disciplinary nature (see Proverbs 1:3), here more particularly the instruction of the father, but in a wider sense wisdom generally, with which it is synonymous, as appears from the feminine, "let her not go, keep her," musar being masculine; or the feminines may refer back to "Wisdom" in ver. 11. So Mercerus and Buxtorf. For she is thy life (ki hi khayyeka); i.e. she brings life to thee. Wisdom is represented as the bestower of long life, in Proverbs 3:2, 16, 18. Just in proportion as Wisdom is retained and guarded, so is life secured, and so far as the hold upon her is lost, so are the hopes of life diminished. Life depends upon the observance of her precepts.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Hold on
הַחֲזֵ֣ק (ha·ḥă·zêq)
Verb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine singular
Strong's 2388: To fasten upon, to seize, be strong, obstinate, to bind, restrain, conquer

to instruction;
בַּמּוּסָ֣ר (bam·mū·sār)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4148: Chastisement, reproof, warning, instruction, restraint

do not
אַל־ (’al-)
Adverb
Strong's 408: Not

let go.
תֶּ֑רֶף (te·rep̄)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect Jussive - second person masculine singular
Strong's 7503: Sink, relax

Guard it,
נִ֝צְּרֶ֗הָ (niṣ·ṣə·re·hā)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 5341: To watch, guard, keep

for
כִּי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

it
הִ֥יא (hî)
Pronoun - third person feminine singular
Strong's 1931: He, self, the same, this, that, as, are

is your life.
חַיֶּֽיךָ׃ (ḥay·ye·ḵā)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 2416: Alive, raw, fresh, strong, life


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 4:13 Take firm hold of instruction (Prov. Pro Pr)
Proverbs 4:12
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