[1] My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee; [2] So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thy heart to understanding; [3] Yea, if thou cry after discernment, And lift up thy voice for understanding; [4] If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures: [5] Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, And find the knowledge of God. [6] For Jehovah giveth wisdom; Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding: [7] He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to them that walk in integrity; [8] That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints. [9] Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, And equity, yea, every good path. [10] For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul; [11] Discretion shall watch over thee; Understanding shall keep thee: [12] To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak perverse things; [13] Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness; [14] Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil; [15] Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths: [16] To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words; [17] That forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God: [18] For her house inclineth unto death, And her paths unto the dead; [19] None that go unto her return again, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life: [20] That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous. [21] For the upright shall dwell in the land, And the perfect shall remain in it. [22] But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.
