The Pursuit of Wisdom Brings Security

1 My son, if you will receive my words
          And treasure my commandments within you,

2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
          Incline your heart to understanding;

3 For if you cry for discernment,
          Lift your voice for understanding;

4 If you seek her as silver
          And search for her as for hidden treasures;

5 Then you will discern the fear of the LORD
          And discover the knowledge of God.

6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
          From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
          He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

8 Guarding the paths of justice,
          And He preserves the way of His godly ones.

9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice
          And equity and every good course.

10 For wisdom will enter your heart
          And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

11 Discretion will guard you,
          Understanding will watch over you,

12 To deliver you from the way of evil,
          From the man who speaks perverse things;

13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness
          To walk in the ways of darkness;

14 Who delight in doing evil
          And rejoice in the perversity of evil;

15 Whose paths are crooked,
          And who are devious in their ways;

16 To deliver you from the strange woman,
          From the adulteress who flatters with her words;

17 That leaves the companion of her youth
          And forgets the covenant of her God;

18 For her house sinks down to death
          And her tracks lead to the dead;

19 None who go to her return again,
          Nor do they reach the paths of life.

20 So you will walk in the way 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 treacherous will be uprooted from it.