| 1 | My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee; |
| 2 | So as to incline thine ear unto 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 hid treasures: |
| 5 | Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, And find the knowledge of God. |
| 6 | For Jehovah giveth wisdom; Out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding: |
| 7 | He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright; [He is] a shield to them that walk in integrity; |
| 8 | That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints. |
| 9 | Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, And equity, [yea], every good path. |
| 10 | For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul; |
| 11 | Discretion shall watch over thee; Understanding shall keep thee: |
| 12 | To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that 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 strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words; |
| 17 | That forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God: |
| 18 | For her house inclineth unto death, And her paths unto the dead; |
| 19 | None that go unto her return again, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life: |
| 20 | That thou mayest 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. |
