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

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

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

So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

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

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

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

If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

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

Then shalt thou understand the 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.

For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh 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,

He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

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

He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

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

Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

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

When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

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

Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

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

To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;

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

Who leave 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,

Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;

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

Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:

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

To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

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

Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

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

For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

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

None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of 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).

That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

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

For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect 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.

But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.