1My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments within thee 2so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom [and] apply thine heart to intelligence, 3[yea], if thou criest for understanding [and] givest thy voice unto intelligence, 4if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as [for] hid treasures, 5then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. 6For the LORD gives wisdom; out of his mouth [comes] knowledge and intelligence. 7He keeps the person of the upright; [he is] a buckler to those that walk perfectly, 8keeping the paths of judgment and the way of his merciful ones. 9Then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity, [yea], every good path. 10When wisdom enters into thine heart and knowledge is sweet unto thy soul, 11discretion shall preserve thee, intelligence shall keep thee 12to deliver thee from the evil way, from the man that speaks perversion, 13who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness 14who rejoice to do evil [and] delight in wicked perversion, 15whose ways [are] crooked, and [they are] crooked in their paths; 16to deliver thee from the strange woman, [even] from the stranger [who] flatters with her words, 17who forsakes the prince of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. 18Therefore her house inclines unto death, and her paths unto the dead. 19None that go unto her return again, neither do they take hold of the paths of life. 20That thou may walk in the way of good [men] and keep the paths of the righteous. 21For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. 22But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.: