1 M y son, if you receive my sayings and store up my teachings within you,

My son, if you will receive my words and treasure up my commandments within you,

2 m ake your ear open to wisdom. Turn your heart to understanding.

Making your ear attentive to skillful and godly Wisdom and inclining and directing your heart and mind to understanding;

3 I f you cry out to know right from wrong, and lift your voice for understanding;

Yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

4 i f you look for her as silver, and look for her as hidden riches;

If you seek as for silver and search for skillful and godly Wisdom as for hidden treasures,

5 t hen you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find what is known of God.

Then you will understand the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

6 F or the Lord gives wisdom. Much learning and understanding come from His mouth.

For the Lord gives skillful and godly Wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

7 H e stores up perfect wisdom for those who are right with Him. He is a safe-covering to those who are right in their walk.

He 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 H e watches over the right way, and He keeps safe the way of those who belong to Him.

That He may guard the paths of justice; yes, He preserves the way of His saints.

9 T hen you will understand what is right and good, and right from wrong, and you will know what you should do.

Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and fair dealing; yes, you will understand every good path.

10 F or wisdom will come into your heart. And much learning will be pleasing to your soul.

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

11 G ood thinking will keep you safe. Understanding will watch over you.

Discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you,

12 Y ou will be kept from the sinful man, and from the man who causes much trouble by what he says.

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

13 Y ou will be kept from the man who leaves the right way to walk in the ways of darkness,

Men who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

14 f rom the one who is happy doing wrong, and who finds joy in the way of sin.

Who rejoice to do evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,

15 H is ways are not straight and are not good.

Who are crooked in their ways, wayward and devious in their paths.

16 Y ou will be saved from the strange woman, from the sinful woman with her smooth words.

to deliver you from the alien woman, from the outsider with her flattering words,

17 S he leaves the husband she had when she was young, and forgets the agreement with her God.

Who forsakes the husband and guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

18 F or her house goes down to death, and her steps lead to the dead.

For her house sinks down to death and her paths to the spirits.

19 N one who go to her return again, and they do not find the paths of life.

None 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 those who are right and good.

So 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 those who are right with God will live in the land. The men without blame will stay in it,

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

22 b ut the sinful will be destroyed from the land, and those who are not faithful will be taken away from it.

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