1 M y son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee;

2 S o as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thy heart to understanding;

3 Y ea, if thou cry after discernment, And lift up thy voice for understanding;

4 I f thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures:

5 T hen shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, And find the knowledge of God.

6 F or Jehovah giveth wisdom; Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding:

7 H e layeth up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to them that walk in integrity;

8 T hat he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints.

9 T hen shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, And equity, yea, every good path.

10 F or wisdom shall enter into thy heart, And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;

11 D iscretion shall watch over thee; Understanding shall keep thee:

12 T o deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak perverse things;

13 W ho 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, And wayward in their paths:

16 T o deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words;

17 T hat forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God:

18 F or her house inclineth unto death, And her paths unto the dead;

19 N one that go unto her return again, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:

20 T hat 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 perfect shall remain in it.

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