1 My son, if you will receive my words, and treasure up my commandments within you,

2 so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and extend your heart to understanding;

3 yes, if you cry out for discernment, lifting up your voice for understanding;

4 if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures,

5 then you shall understand the fear of Jehovah, and find the knowledge of God.

6 For Jehovah gives wisdom; out of His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

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

8 to guard the paths of judgment; and He keeps watch over the way of His saints.

9 Then you shall understand righteousness and justice and equity and every good path.

10 When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,

11 discretion shall keep watch over you, understanding shall guard you,

12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things,

13 those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

14 who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perversities of the wicked,

15 whose paths are crooked, who are devious in their tracks;

16 to deliver you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words,

17 who forsakes the guide of her youth and has forgotten the covenant of her God.

18 For her house leads down to death, and her tracks to the spirits of the dead.

19 No one going in to her returns, nor do they attain unto the ways of life.

20 That you may walk in the ways of the good and keep the ways 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 those who act deceitfully shall be rooted out of it.