1My son, if you will receive my words, and treasure up my commandments within you, 2so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and extend your heart to understanding; 3yes, if you cry out for discernment, lifting up your voice for understanding; 4if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures, 5then you shall understand the fear of Jehovah, and find the knowledge of God. 6For Jehovah gives wisdom; out of His mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7He lays up sound wisdom for the upright; a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8to guard the paths of judgment; and He keeps watch over the way of His saints. 9Then you shall understand righteousness and justice and equity and every good path. 10When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, 11discretion shall keep watch over you, understanding shall guard you, 12to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, 13those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, 14who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perversities of the wicked, 15whose paths are crooked, who are devious in their tracks; 16to deliver you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words, 17who forsakes the guide of her youth and has forgotten the covenant of her God. 18For her house leads down to death, and her tracks to the spirits of the dead. 19No one going in to her returns, nor do they attain unto the ways of life. 20That you may walk in the ways of the good and keep the ways 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 those who act deceitfully shall be rooted out of it.