1 My son, if thou will receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee,

2 so as to incline thine ear to 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 hidden treasures,

5 then thou shall understand the fear of LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

6 For LORD gives wisdom. Out of his mouth [is] knowledge and understanding.

7 He lays up sound wisdom for the upright, a shield to those who walk in integrity,

8 that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his sanctified.

9 Then thou shall understand righteousness and justice and equity, [yea], every good path.

10 For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant to thy soul,

11 discretion shall watch over thee, understanding shall keep thee,

12 to deliver thee 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 thee from the interloping woman, even from the stranger who flatters with her words,

17 who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God

18 (for her house inclines to death, and her paths to the dead;

19 none who go to her return again, nor do they attain to the paths of life),

20 that thou may 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.