| Holman Christian Standard Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, | 1My son, if you accept my words, and treasure my instructions — |
| 2listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding; | 2making your ear attentive to wisdom, and turning your heart to understanding— |
| 3furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, | 3if, indeed, you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, |
| 4if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, | 4if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, |
| 5then you will understand the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. | 5then you will understand the fear of the LORD and learn to know God. |
| 6For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. | 6For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. |
| 7He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity | 7He stores up sound wisdom for the upright and is a shield to those who walk in integrity— |
| 8so that He may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His loyal followers. | 8guarding the paths of the just and protecting the way of his faithful ones. |
| 9Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and integrity--every good path. | 9Then you will understand what is right, just, and upright—every good path. |
| 10For wisdom will enter your mind, and knowledge will delight your heart. | 10For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. |
| 11Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you, | 11Discretion will protect you; understanding will watch over you, |
| 12rescuing you from the way of evil-- from the one who says perverse things, | 12delivering you from the way of evil, from men who speak perverse things, |
| 13from those who abandon the right paths to walk in ways of darkness, | 13and from those who abandon the right path to travel along the ways of darkness; |
| 14from those who enjoy doing evil and celebrate perversion, | 14who delight in doing evil, and rejoice in the perverseness of evil; |
| 15whose paths are crooked, and whose ways are devious. | 15whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways, |
| 16It will rescue you from a forbidden woman, from a stranger with her flattering talk, | 16delivering you from the adulteress, from the immoral woman with her seductive words, |
| 17who abandons the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; | 17someone who abandoned the companion of her youth and forgot the covenant of her God. |
| 18for her house sinks down to death and her ways to the land of the departed spirits. | 18For her house leads down to death, and her paths down to the realm of the dead. |
| 19None return who go to her; none reach the paths of life. | 19None who go to her return, nor do they reach the paths of life. |
| 20So follow the way of good people, and keep to the paths of the righteous. | 20This is how you will walk in the way of good men and will keep to the paths of the righteous. |
| 21For the upright will inhabit the land, and those of integrity will remain in it; | 21For the upright will live in the land, and people of integrity will remain in it. |
| 22but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous uprooted from it. | 22But the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted from it. |
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