[1] My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with
you, [2] making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to
understanding; [3] yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for
understanding, [4] if you seek it like silver and search for it as for
hidden treasures; [5] then you will understand the fear of the LORD and
find 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 preserving the way of his saints. [9] Then you will
understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; [10] for
wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your
soul; [11] discretion will watch over you; understanding will guard you;
[12] delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,
[13] who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
[14] who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil;
[15] men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. [16]
You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her
smooth words, [17] who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the
covenant of her God; [18] for her house sinks down to death, and her paths
to the shades; [19] none who go to her come back nor do they regain 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 inhabit the land, and men
of integrity will remain in it; [22] but the wicked will be cut off from
the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
