The Value of Wisdom
aMy son, bif 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 afor understanding,
4 if you seek it like asilver
and search for it as for bhidden treasures,
5 then ayou 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 aa shield to those who bwalk in integrity,
8 guarding the paths of justice
and awatching over the way of his bsaints.
9 aThen you will understand brighteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 adiscretion will bwatch 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 awalk in the ways of darkness,
14 who arejoice in doing evil
and bdelight in the perverseness of evil,
15 men whose apaths are crooked,
band who are cdevious in their ways.
16 So ayou will be delivered from the forbidden woman,
from bthe adulteress with cher smooth words,
17 who forsakes athe companion of her youth
and forgets bthe covenant of her God;
18 afor her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;
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 awill inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
22 but the wicked will be acut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be brooted out of it.