1  ^uMy son, ^vif you receive my words

and treasure up my commandments with you,

2  making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding;

3  yes, if you call out for insight

and raise your voice ^wfor understanding,

4  if you seek it like ^xsilver

and search for it as for ^yhidden treasures,

5  then ^zyou will understand the fear of the Lord

and find the knowledge of God.

6  For ^athe Lord gives wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

7  he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

he is ^ba shield to those who ^cwalk in integrity,

8  guarding the paths of justice

and ^dwatching over the way of his ^esaints.

9  ^fThen you will understand ^grighteousness and justice

and equity, every good path;

10  for wisdom will come into your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

11  ^hdiscretion will ⁱwatch over you,

understanding will guard you,

12  delivering you from the way of evil,

from men of perverted speech,

13  who forsake the paths of uprightness

to ^jwalk in the ways of darkness,

14  who ^krejoice in doing evil

and ^ldelight in the perverseness of evil,

15  men whose ^mpaths are crooked,

ⁿand who are ^odevious in their ways.

16  So ^pyou will be delivered from the forbidden¹ woman,

from ^qthe adulteress² with ^rher smooth words,

17  who forsakes ^sthe companion of her youth

and forgets ^tthe covenant of her God;

18  ^ufor her house sinks down to death,

and her paths to the departed;³

19  none who go to her come back,

nor do they regain the paths of life.

20  So you will walk in the way of the good

and keep to the paths of the righteous.

21  For the upright ^vwill inhabit the land,

and those with integrity will remain in it,

22  but the wicked will be ^wcut off from the land,

and the treacherous will be ^xrooted out of it.