1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom and bending your heart to understanding,
3 if indeed you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding,
4 if you look for her as for silver and hunt for her as for buried treasure,
5 then you will grasp the fear of the LORD and come upon the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 protecting the paths of justice and guarding the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul;
11 discretion will keep watch over you; understanding will protect you,
12 rescuing you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks twisted things,
13 from those who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways,
14 who are glad to do evil and revel in the twistedness of the wicked,
15 whose paths are crooked, and who go astray in their tracks;
16 rescuing you from the strange woman, from the foreigner whose words are smooth,
17 who has left the companion of her youth and forgotten the covenant of her God;
18 for her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the shades.
19 None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 So you will walk in the way of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will be left in it;
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the faithless rooted out of it.