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

2 M aking your ear attentive to skillful and godly Wisdom and inclining and directing your heart and mind to understanding;

3 Y es, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

4 I f you seek as for silver and search for skillful and godly Wisdom as for hidden treasures,

5 T hen you will understand the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

6 F or the Lord gives skillful and godly Wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

7 H e hides away sound and godly Wisdom and stores it for the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with Him); He is a shield to those who walk uprightly and in integrity,

8 T hat He may guard the paths of justice; yes, He preserves the way of His saints.

9 T hen you will understand righteousness, justice, and fair dealing; yes, you will understand every good path.

10 F or skillful and godly Wisdom shall enter into your heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant to you.

11 D iscretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you,

12 T o deliver you from the way of evil and the evil men, from men who speak perverse things and are liars,

13 M en who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

14 W ho rejoice to do evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,

15 W ho are crooked in their ways, wayward and devious in their paths.

16 t o deliver you from the alien woman, from the outsider with her flattering words,

17 W ho forsakes the husband and guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

18 F or her house sinks down to death and her paths to the spirits.

19 N one who go to her return again, neither do they attain or regain the paths of life.

20 S o may you walk in the way of good men, and keep to the paths of the righteous (the upright, in right standing with God).

21 F or the upright shall dwell in the land, and the men of integrity, blameless and complete, shall remain in it;

22 B ut the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.