1:
My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee,
2:
That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence:
3:
For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:
4:
If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:
5:
Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God.
6:
Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.
7:
He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity.
8:
Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.
9:
Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.
10:
If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:
11:
Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,
12:
That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:
13:
Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:
14:
Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things:
15:
Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.
16:
That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words:
17:
And forsaketh the guide of her youth,
18:
And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.
19:
None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life,
20:
That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.
21:
For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it.
22:
But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.