1My son, if you will receive my words and treasure up my commandments within you,

2So that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding;

3Yea, if you cry after knowledge and lift up your voice for understanding;

4If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures,

5Then you shall understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

6For the LORD gives wisdom; out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

7He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.

8He keeps the paths of right judgment and preserves the way of His saints.

9Then you shall understand righteousness and judgment and equity, every good path.

10Wisdom shall enter into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;

11Discretion shall preserve you and, understanding shall keep you,

12To deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man who speaks wicked things,

13Those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

14Who rejoice to do evil and delight in the perversities of the wicked,

15Whose ways are crooked, and are devious in their paths;

16To deliver you from the wanton woman, even from the stranger who flatters with her words,

17Who forsakes the guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God,

18For her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the dead.

19None that go unto her return again, nor do they take hold of the paths of life--

20In order that you may walk in the way of good and keep the paths of the righteous.

21For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

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