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