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