1) | My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; |
2) | So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; |
3) | Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; |
4) | If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; |
5) | Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. |
6) | For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. |
7) | He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. |
8) | He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. |
9) | Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. |
10) | When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; |
11) | Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: |
12) | To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; |
13) | Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; |
14) | Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; |
15) | Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: |
16) | To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; |
17) | Which forsaketh the guide 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 take they hold of 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 earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. |