My son, if you will areceive my words And btreasure my commandments within you,
2aMake your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding;
3For if you cry for discernment, 1Lift your voice for understanding;
4If you seek her as asilver And search for her as for bhidden treasures;
5Then you will discern the afear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God.
6For athe LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a ashield to those who walk in integrity,
8Guarding the paths of justice, And He apreserves the way of His godly ones.
9Then you will discern arighteousness and justice And equity and every bgood course.
10For awisdom will enter your heart And bknowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11Discretion will aguard you, Understanding will watch over you,
12To adeliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks bperverse things;
13From those who aleave the paths of uprightness To walk in the bways of darkness;
14Who adelight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil;
15Whose paths are acrooked, And who are devious in their ways;
16To adeliver you from the strange woman, From the 1 badulteress who flatters with her words;
17That leaves the acompanion of her youth And forgets the bcovenant of her God;
18For aher house 1sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the 2dead;
19None awho go to her return again, Nor do they reach the bpaths of life.
20So you will awalk in the way of good men And keep to the bpaths of the righteous.
21For athe upright will 1live in the land And bthe blameless will remain in it;
22But athe wicked will be cut off from the land And bthe treacherous will be cuprooted from it.