1: My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee; 2: So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thy heart to understanding; 3: Yea, if thou cry after discernment, And lift up thy voice for understanding; 4: If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures: 5: Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, And find the knowledge of God. 6: For Jehovah giveth wisdom; Out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding: 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 saints. 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; Understanding shall keep thee: 12: To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak perverse things; 13: Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness; 14: Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil; 15: Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths: 16: To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words; 17: That forsaketh the friend 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 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 perfect shall remain in it. 22: But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.
