1: My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; 2: So that thou incline thy ear to wisdom, [and] apply thy heart to understanding; 3: Yes, 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; [and] every good path. 10: When wisdom entereth into thy heart, and knowledge is pleasant to 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 [who] flattereth with her words; 17: Who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. 18: For her house inclineth to death, and her paths to the dead. 19: None that go to her return again, neither do they take 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.
