| 1 | My son, if thou dost accept my sayings, And my commands dost lay up with thee, |
| 2 | To cause thine ear to attend to wisdom, Thou inclinest thy heart to understanding, |
| 3 | For, if for intelligence thou callest, For understanding givest forth thy voice, |
| 4 | If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her, |
| 5 | Then understandest thou fear of Jehovah, And knowledge of God thou findest. |
| 6 | For Jehovah giveth wisdom, From His mouth knowledge and understanding. |
| 7 | Even to lay up for the upright substance, A shield for those walking uprightly. |
| 8 | To keep the paths of judgment, And the way of His saints He preserveth. |
| 9 | Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness -- every good path. |
| 10 | For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant, |
| 11 | Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee, |
| 12 | To deliver thee from an evil way, From any speaking froward things, |
| 13 | Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness, |
| 14 | Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked, |
| 15 | Whose paths [are] crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways. |
| 16 | To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings, |
| 17 | Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten. |
| 18 | For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths. |
| 19 | None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life. |
| 20 | That thou dost go in the way of the good, And the paths of the righteous dost keep. |
| 21 | For the upright do inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it, |
| 22 | And the wicked from the earth are cut off, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it! |
