| 1 | My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee, |
| 2 | That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence: |
| 3 | For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence: |
| 4 | If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure: |
| 5 | Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God. |
| 6 | Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge. |
| 7 | He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity. |
| 8 | Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints. |
| 9 | Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path. |
| 10 | If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul: |
| 11 | Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee, |
| 12 | That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things: |
| 13 | Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways: |
| 14 | Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things: |
| 15 | Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous. |
| 16 | That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words: |
| 17 | And forsaketh the guide of her youth, |
| 18 | And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell. |
| 19 | None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life, |
| 20 | That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just. |
| 21 | For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it. |
| 22 | But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it. |
