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

My son, if thou dost accept my sayings, And my commands dost lay up with thee,

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

To cause thine ear to attend to wisdom, Thou inclinest thy heart to understanding,

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

For, if for intelligence thou callest, For understanding givest forth thy voice,

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

If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her,

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

Then understandest thou fear of Jehovah, And knowledge of God thou findest.

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

For Jehovah giveth wisdom, From His mouth 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,

Even to lay up for the upright substance, A shield for those walking uprightly.

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

To keep the paths of judgment, And the way of His saints He preserveth.

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

Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness -- every good path.

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

For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant,

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

Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth 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 an evil way, From any speaking froward things,

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

Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness,

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

Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked,

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

Whose paths crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways.

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

To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings,

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

Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten.

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

For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths.

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

None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach 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 dost go in the way of the good, And the paths of the righteous dost keep.

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 do inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it,

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

And the wicked from the earth are cut off, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!