¹ My son, if thou will receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee,

² so as to incline thine ear to wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding,

³ yea, if thou cry after discernment, and lift up thy voice for understanding,

⁴ if thou seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures,

⁵ then thou shall understand the fear of Jehovah, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶ For Jehovah gives wisdom. Out of his mouth is knowledge and understanding.

⁷ He lays up sound wisdom for the upright, a shield to those who walk in integrity,

⁸ that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his sanctified.

⁹ Then thou shall understand righteousness and justice and equity, yea, every good path.

¹⁰ For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant to thy soul,

¹¹ discretion shall watch over thee, understanding shall keep thee,

¹² to deliver thee from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,

¹³ who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁴ who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵ who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,

¹⁶ to deliver thee from the interloping woman, even from the stranger who flatters with her words,

¹⁷ who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God

¹⁸ (for her house inclines to death, and her paths to the dead;

¹⁹ none who go to her return again, nor do they attain to the paths of life),

²⁰ that thou may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹ For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

²² But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.