[1] My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, [2] Make your ear attentive to wisdom; Incline your heart to understanding. [3] For if you cry out for insight, And raise your voice for understanding; [4] If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; [5] Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And discover the knowledge of God. [6] For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. [7] He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, [8] Guarding the paths of justice, And He watches over the way of His godly ones. [9] Then you will discern righteousness, justice, And integrity, and every good path. [10] For wisdom will enter your heart, And knowledge will be delightful to your soul; [11] Discretion will watch over you, Understanding will guard you, [12] To rescue you from the way of evil, From a person who speaks perverse things; [13] From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness; [14] Who delight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil; [15] Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their ways; [16] To rescue you from the strange woman, From the foreign woman who flatters with her words, [17] Who leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God; [18] For her house sinks down to death, And her tracks lead to the dead; [19] None who go to her return, Nor do they reach the paths of life. [20] So you will walk in the way of good people And keep to the paths of the righteous. [21] For the upright will live in the land, And the blameless will remain in it; [22] But the wicked will be eliminated from the land, And the treacherous will be torn away from it.
