Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways – do not wander into her pathways;

If you stop listening to ¹  instruction, my child, you will stray ²  from the words of knowledge.

You despise ¹  all who stray from your statutes, for they are deceptive and unreliable. ² 

You reprimand arrogant people. Those who stray from your commands are doomed. ¹ 

With all my heart I seek you. Do not allow me to stray from your commands!

The wicked lay a trap for me, but I do not wander from your precepts.

Why, Lord, do you make us stray ¹  from your ways, ²  and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? ³  Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance!

so that the house of Israel will no longer go astray from me, nor continue to defile themselves by all their sins. They will be my people and I will be their God, ¹  declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Before I was afflicted I used to stray off, ¹  but now I keep your instructions. ² 

But avoid profane chatter, ¹  because those occupied with it will stray further and further into ungodliness, ² 

Moreover, the strength of their ¹  hands – what use was it to me? Men whose strength ²  had perished;

So now, children, ¹  listen to me; do not turn aside from the words I speak. ² 

Train ¹  a child ²  in the way that he should go, ³  and when he is old he will not turn from it. ⁴ 

Those who stray morally will gain understanding; ¹  those who complain will acquire insight. ² 

Babylon will become a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. ¹  It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, a place where no one lives. ² 

You will die the death of the uncircumcised ¹  by the hand of foreigners; for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Then Mephibosheth ¹  bowed and said, “Of what importance am I, your servant, that you show regard for a dead dog like me?” ² 

Dogs will eat the members of your family ¹  who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”’ Indeed, the Lord has announced it!

He followed in his father Asa’s footsteps and was careful to do what the Lord approved. ¹ 

Like ¹  wild donkeys in the desert they ²  go out to their labor, ³  seeking diligently for food; the wasteland provides ⁴  food for them and for their children.