1 - My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee;
2 - So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thy heart to understanding;
3 - Yea, if thou cry after discernment, And lift up thy voice for understanding;
4 - If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures:
5 - Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, And find the knowledge of God.
6 - For Jehovah giveth wisdom; Out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding:
7 - He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright; [He is] a shield to them that walk in integrity;
8 - That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints.
9 - Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, And equity, [yea], every good path.
10 - For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;
11 - Discretion shall watch over thee; Understanding shall keep thee:
12 - To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak perverse things;
13 - Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness;
14 - Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil;
15 - Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths:
16 - To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words;
17 - That forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God:
18 - For her house inclineth unto death, And her paths unto the dead;
19 - None that go unto her return again, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:
20 - That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous.
21 - For the upright shall dwell in the land, And the perfect shall remain in it.
22 - But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.