1 ¶ My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments within thee

2 s o that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to intelligence,

3 y ea, if thou criest for understanding and givest thy voice unto intelligence,

4 i f thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures,

5 t hen shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

6 F or the LORD gives wisdom; out of his mouth comes knowledge and intelligence.

7 H e keeps the person of the upright; he is a buckler to those that walk perfectly,

8 k eeping the paths of judgment and the way of his merciful ones.

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

10 ¶ When wisdom enters into thine heart and knowledge is sweet unto thy soul,

11 d iscretion shall preserve thee, intelligence shall keep thee

12 t o deliver thee from the evil way, from the man that speaks perversion,

13 w ho leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

14 w ho rejoice to do evil and delight in wicked perversion,

15 w hose ways are crooked, and they are crooked in their paths;

16 t o deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger who flatters with her words,

17 w ho forsakes the prince of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

18 T herefore her house inclines unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

19 N one that go unto her return again, neither do they take hold of the paths of life.

20 T hat thou may 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 earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.