[1] My son, if you will receive my words, And store up my commandments
within you; [2] So as to turn your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart
to understanding; [3] Yes, if you call out for discernment, And lift up
your voice for understanding; [4] If you seek her as silver, And search
for her as for hidden treasures: [5] Then you will understand the fear of
Yahweh, And find the knowledge of God. [6] For Yahweh gives wisdom.
Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. [7] He lays up sound
wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;
[8] That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his
saints. [9] Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity
and every good path. [10] For wisdom will enter into your heart.
Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. [11] Discretion will watch over
you. Understanding will keep you, [12] To deliver you from the way of
evil, From the men who 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 you from the
strange woman, Even from the foreigner who flatters with her words; [17]
Who forsakes the friend of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her
God: [18] For her house leads down to death, Her paths to the dead. [19]
None who go to her return again, Neither do they attain to the paths of
life: [20] That you may walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths
of the righteous. [21] For the upright will dwell in the land. The
perfect will remain in it. [22] But the wicked will be cut off from the
land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
