Contemporary English Version Wisdom and Bad Friends1My child, you must follow and treasure my teachings and my instructions. 2Keep in tune with wisdom and think what it means to have common sense. 3Beg as loud as you can for good common sense. 4Search for wisdom as you would search for silver or hidden treasure. 5Then you will understand what it means to respect and to know the Lord God. 6 All wisdom comes from the Lord, and so do common sense and understanding. 7God gives helpful advice+ to everyone who obeys him and protects those who live as they should. 8God sees that justice is done, and he watches over everyone who is faithful to him. 9With wisdom you will learn what is right and honest and fair. 10Wisdom will control your mind, and you will be pleased with knowledge. 11Sound judgment and good sense will watch over you. 12Wisdom will protect you from evil schemes and from those liars 13who turned from doing good to live in the darkness. 14Most of all they enjoy being mean and deceitful. 15They are dishonest themselves, and so are all their deeds. Wisdom and Sexual Purity16Wisdom will protect you from the smooth talk of a sinful woman, 17who breaks her wedding vows and leaves the man she married when she was young. 18The road to her house leads down to the dark world of the dead. 19Visit her, and you will never find the road to life again. 20Follow the example of good people and live an honest life. 21If you are honest and innocent, you will keep your land; 22if you do wrong and can never be trusted, you will be rooted out. Footnotes: Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®) © 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. Bible text from the Contemporary English Version 2nd Edition (CEV®) is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by American Bible Society, 101 North Independence Mall East, Floor 8, Philadelphia, PA 19106-2155 (www.americanbible.org). Learn more at www.cev.bible. Discover .BIBLE resources for your ministry at www.get.bible/cev Bible Hub |