1: My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
   2: So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
   3: Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
   4: If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest 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 understanding.
   7: He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
   8: He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
   9: Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
   10: When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
   11: Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
   12: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh 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 the wicked;
   15: Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:
   16: To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
   17: Which forsaketh the guide 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 take they hold of 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 earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.