1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, |
2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, |
3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, |
4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, |
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. |
6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. |
7 He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, |
8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. |
9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path. |
10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. |
11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. |
12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, |
13 who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, |
14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, |
15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. |
16 It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words, |
17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. |
18 For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. |
19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life. |
20 Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. |
21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; |
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it. |