| 1 | My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind; |
| 2 | So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge; |
| 3 | Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge; |
| 4 | If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth; |
| 5 | Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours. |
| 6 | For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason: |
| 7 | He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil; |
| 8 | He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him. |
| 9 | Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way. |
| 10 | For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul; |
| 11 | Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you; |
| 12 | Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false; |
| 13 | Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads; |
| 14 | Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner; |
| 15 | Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil: |
| 16 | To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue; |
| 17 | Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind: |
| 18 | For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades: |
| 19 | Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life: |
| 20 | So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright. |
| 21 | For the upright will be living in the land, and the good will have it for their heritage. |
| 22 | But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted. |