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[1]My son, if thou wilt receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with thee;
[2]thine ear shall hearken to wisdom; thou shalt also apply thine heart to understanding, and shalt apply it to the instruction of thy son.
[3]For it thou shalt call to wisdom, and utter thy voice for understanding;
[4]and if thou shalt seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures;
[5]then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
[6]For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come knowledge and understanding,
[7]and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way;
[8]that he may guard the righteous ways: and he will preserve the way of them that fear him.
[9]Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment; and shalt direct all thy course aright.
[10]For if wisdom shall come into thine understanding, and discernment shall seem pleasing to thy soul,
[11]good counsel shall guard thee, and holy understanding shall keep thee;
[12]to deliver thee from the evil way, and from the man that speaks nothing faithfully.
[13]Alas for those who forsake right paths, to walk in ways of darkness;
[14]who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;
[15]whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;
[16]to remove thee far from the straight way, and to estrange thee from a righteous purpose. My son, let not evil counsel overtake thee,
[17]of her who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God.
[18]For she has fixed her house near death, and guided her wheels near Hades with the giants.
[19]None that go by her shall return, neither shall they take hold of right paths, for they are not apprehended of the years of life.
[20]For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths of righteousness easy.
[21]For the upright shall dwell in the earth, and the holy shall be left behind in it.
[22]The paths of the ungodly shall perish out of the earth, and transgressors shall be driven away from it.
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