1My son, if you will receive my words

And treasure my commandments within you,

2Make your ear attentive to wisdom;

Incline your heart to understanding.

3For if you cry out for insight,

And [a]raise your voice for understanding;

4If you seek her as silver

And search for her as for hidden treasures;

5Then you will understand the fear of the LORD,

And discover the knowledge of God.

6For the LORD gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

7He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

8Guarding the paths of justice,

And He watches over the way of His godly ones.

9Then you will discern righteousness, justice,

And integrity, and every good path.

10For wisdom will enter your heart,

And knowledge will be delightful to your soul;

11Discretion will watch over you,

Understanding will guard you,

12To rescue you from the way of evil,

From a person who speaks perverse things;

13From those who leave the paths of uprightness

To walk in the ways of darkness;

14Who delight in doing evil

And rejoice in the perversity of evil;

15Whose paths are crooked,

And who are devious in their ways;

16To rescue you from the strange woman,

From the foreign woman who flatters with her words,

17Who leaves the companion of her youth

And forgets the covenant of her God;

18For her house sinks down to death,

And her tracks lead to the [b]dead;

19None who go to her return,

Nor do they reach the paths of life.

20So you will walk in the way of good people

And keep to the paths of the righteous.

21For the upright will live in the land,

And the blameless will remain in it;

22But the wicked will be eliminated from the land,

And the treacherous will be torn away from it.