1. My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee;
2. So that thou make thine ear attend unto wisdom, and thy heart incline to discernment;
3. Yea, if thou call for understanding, and lift up thy voice for discernment;
4. If thou seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;
5. Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6. For the LORD giveth wisdom, out of His mouth cometh knowledge and discernment;
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 godly ones.
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, discernment shall guard thee;
12. To deliver thee from the way of evil, from the men that speak froward things;
13. Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
14. Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of evil;
15. Who are crooked in their ways, and perverse in their paths;
16. To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the alien woman that maketh smooth her words;
17. That forsaketh the lord of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
18. For her house sinketh down unto death, and her paths unto the shades;
19. None that go unto her return, 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 whole-hearted shall remain in it.
22. But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the faithless shall be plucked up out of it.
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