[1]My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments within thee,
[2]And cause thine ears to hearken unto wisdom, and incline thine heart to understanding,
[3](For if thou callest after knowledge, and cryest for understanding:
[4]If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for treasures,
[5]Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
[6]For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
[7]He preserveth the state of the righteous: he is a shield to them that walk uprightly,
[8]That they may keep the ways of judgment: and he preserveth the way of his Saints)
[9]Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity , and every good path.
[10]When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge delighteth thy soul,
[11]Then shall counsel preserve thee, and understanding shall keep thee,
[12]And deliver thee from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh froward things,
[13]And from them that leave the ways of righteousness to walk in the ways of darkness:
[14]Which rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked,
[15]Whose ways are crooked and they are lewd in their paths.
[16]And it shall deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger, which flattereth with her words.
[17]Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
[18]Surely her house tendeth to death, and her paths unto the dead.
[19]All they that go unto her, return not again, neither take they hold of the ways of life.
[20]Therefore walk thou in the way of good men, and keep the ways of the righteous.
[21]For the just shall dwell in the land, and the upright men shall remain in it.
[22]But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.
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