[1] My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, [2] To make your ear pay attention to wisdom, Incline your heart to discernment; [3] For if you call out for understanding, Give your voice for discernment; [4] If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; [5] Then you will understand the fear of Yahweh And find the knowledge of God. [6] For Yahweh gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and discernment. [7] He stores up sound wisdom for the upright, A shield to those who walk in integrity, [8] To guard the paths of justice, And He keeps the way of His holy ones. [9] Then you will understand righteousness and justice And equity—every good track. [10] For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; [11] Discretion will keep you, Discernment will guard you, [12] To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things; [13] From those who forsake the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness; [14] Who are glad to do evil And they rejoice in the perversity of evil; [15] Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their tracks; [16] To deliver you from the strange woman, From the foreign woman who flatters with her words; [17] Who forsakes the close companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God; [18] For her house sinks down to death And her tracks descend to the dead; [19] All who go to her will not return, And they will not reach the paths of life. [20] So that you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous. [21] For the upright will dwell in the land And the blameless will remain in it; [22] But the wicked will be cut off from the land And the treacherous will be torn away from it.
