[1] My son, if you accept my sayings, || And lay up my commands with you, [2] To cause your ear to attend to wisdom, || You incline your heart to understanding, [3] For if you call for intelligence, || [And] give forth your voice for intelligence, [4] If you seek her as silver, || And search for her as hid treasures, [5] Then you understand the fear of YHWH, || And you find the knowledge of God. [6] For YHWH gives wisdom, || Knowledge and understanding from His mouth. [7] Even to lay up substance for the upright, || A shield for those walking uprightly. [8] To keep the paths of judgment, || And He preserves the way of His saints. [9] Then you understand righteousness, || And judgment, and uprightness—every good path. [10] For wisdom comes into your heart, || And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, [11] Thoughtfulness watches over you, || Understanding keeps you, [12] To deliver you from an evil way, || From any speaking contrary things, [13] Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, || To walk in ways of darkness, [14] Who are rejoicing to do evil, || They delight in [the] contrariness of the wicked, [15] Whose paths [are] crooked, || Indeed, they are perverted in their ways. [16] To deliver you from the strange woman, || From the stranger who has made her sayings smooth, [17] Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, || And has forgotten the covenant of her God. [18] For her house has inclined to death, || And her paths to Rephaim. [19] None going in to her return, || Nor do they reach the paths of life. [20] That you go in the way of the good, || And keep the paths of the righteous. [21] For the upright inhabit the earth, || And the perfect are left in it, [22] And the wicked are cut off from the earth, || And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!
