1. My son, if you will receive my words, and hide my commandments with you;
2. So that you turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
3. Yea, if you cry out for knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;
4. If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures;
5. Then you shall understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6. For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7. He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a shield to those who walk uprightly.
8. He keeps the paths of justice, and preserves the way of his saints.
9. Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10. When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul;
11. Discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you:
12. To deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaks obstinate things;
13. From those who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
14. Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of the wicked;
15. Whose ways are crooked, and they obstinate in their paths:
16. To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger who flatters with her words;
17. Who forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.
18. For her house goes down to death, and her paths to the dead.
19. None that go to her come back, neither do they take hold of the paths of life.
20. That you may 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 earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
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