My son, if thou wilt receive my words,{HR}And lay up my commandments with thee;
So that thou wilt incline thine ear to wisdom,{HR}And apply thy heart to understanding;
Yea if thou cry after discernment,{HR}[And] lift up thy voice for understanding;
If thou seek her as silver{HR}And search for her as for hid treasures;
Then shalt thou apprehend the fear of Jehovah,{HR}And find the knowledge of God.
For Jehovah giveth wisdom;{HR}Out of his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright,{HR}A shield to those that walk in integrity;
Guarding the paths of just judgment{HR}And keeping the way of his saints.
Then thou shalt understand righteousness{HR}And judgment and equity—every good path.
For wisdom shall enter into thy heart{HR}And knowledge be pleasant unto thy soul,
Discretion shall watch over thee,{HR}Understanding shall keep thee:—
To deliver thee from the way of evil,{HR}From the man that speaketh froward things;
[From those] who forsake the paths of uprightness,{HR}To walk in the ways of darkness;
Who rejoice to do evil-delight in the frowardness of evil;
Who in their paths are crooked, and pervert in their course—
To deliver thee from the strange woman,{HR}From the stranger who flattereth with her words;
Who forsaketh the friend of her youth{HR}And forgetteth the covenant of her God.
For her house inclineth unto death,{HR}And her paths unto the dead;
None that go unto her return again,{HR}Nor attain unto the paths of life; —
That thou mayest walk in the way of the good{HR}And keep the paths of the righteous.
For the upright shall dwell in the land,{HR}And the perfect shall remain in it.
But the wicked shall be cut off from the land,{HR}And the treacherous shall be plucked out of it.