^1. My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

^2. turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

^3. and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,

^4. and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

^5. then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

^6. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

^7. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,

^8. for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

^9. Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path.

^10. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

^11. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

^12. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse,

^13. who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways,

^14. who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,

^15. whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

^16. It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words,

^17. who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. [1]

^18. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

^19. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

^20. Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.

^21. For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;

^22. but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.