[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.