[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 for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; [4] If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; [5] Then you will discern 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 preserves the way of His godly ones. [9] Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity and every good course. [10] For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; [11] Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you, [12] To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man 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 deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words; [17] That 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 again, Nor do they reach the paths of life. [20] So you will walk in the way of good men 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 cut off from the land And the treacherous will be uprooted from it.
