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
²² But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of