1My son, if thou wilt receive my words,

And lay up my commandments with thee;

2So that thou make thine ear attend unto wisdom,

And thy heart incline to discernment;

3Yea, if thou call for understanding,

And lift up thy voice for discernment;

4If thou seek her as silver,

And search for her as for hid 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 discernment;

7He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright,

He is a shield to them that walk in integrity;

8That He may guard the paths of justice,

And preserve the way of His godly ones.

9Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice,

And equity, yea, every good path.

10For wisdom shall enter into thy heart,

And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;

11Discretion shall watch over thee,

Discernment shall guard thee;

12To deliver thee from the way of evil,

From the men that speak froward things;

13Who leave the paths of uprightness,

To walk in the ways of darkness;

14Who rejoice to do evil,

And delight in the frowardness of evil;

15Who are crooked in their ways,

And perverse in their paths;

16To deliver thee from the strange woman,

Even from the alien woman that maketh smooth her words;

17That forsaketh the lord of her youth,

And forgetteth the covenant of her God.

18For her house sinketh down unto death,

And her paths unto the shades;

19None that go unto her return,

Neither do they attain unto the paths of life;

20That thou mayest walk in the way of good men,

And keep the paths of the righteous.

21For the upright shall dwell in the land,

And the whole-hearted shall remain in it.

22But the wicked shall be cut off from the land,

And the faithless shall be plucked up out of it.