| 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. |