1 My son, if you will receive my words, and lay up my commandments with you;
2 So that you incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;
4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shall you understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
7 He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a shield to them that walk uprightly.
8 He keeps the paths of justice, and preserves the way of his saints.
9 Then shall you understand righteousness, and justice, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul;
11 Discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you:
12 To deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaks perverse 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 perverseness of the wicked;
15 Whose ways are crooked, and who are perverse in their paths:
16 To deliver you from the immoral woman, even from the seductress who flatters with her words;
17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.
18 For her house leads 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 you may 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 blameless shall remain in it.
22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.