| 1 | My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; |
| 2 | So that thou incline thy ear to wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding; |
| 3 | Yes, 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; and every good path. |
| 10 | When wisdom entereth into thy heart, and knowledge is pleasant to 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 who flattereth with her words; |
| 17 | Who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. |
| 18 | For her house inclineth to death, and her paths to the dead. |
| 19 | None that go to her return again, neither do they take 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. |