1My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments within thee,
2And cause thine ears to hearken unto wisdom, and incline thine heart to understanding,
3(For if thou callest after knowledge, and cryest for understanding:
4If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for treasures,
5Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
6For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7He preserveth the state of the righteous, he is a shield to them that walk uprightly,
8That they may keep the ways of judgment: and he preserveth the way of his Saints).
9Then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment, and equity, and every good path.
10When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge delighteth thy soul,
11Then shall counsel preserve thee, and understanding shall keep thee,
12And deliver thee from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh froward things,
13And from them that leave the ways of righteousness to walk in the ways of darkness:
14Which rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked,
15Whose ways are crooked, and they are lewd in their paths.
16And it shall deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
17Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
18Surely her house tendeth to death, and her paths unto the dead.
19All they that go unto her, return not again, neither take they hold of the ways of life.
20Therefore walk thou in the way of good men, and keep the ways of the righteous.
21For the just shall dwell in the land, and the upright men shall remain in it.
22But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressor shall be rooted out of it.