1My son, if you accept my words

and store up my commands within you,

2turning your ear to wisdom

and applying your heart to understanding—

3indeed, if you call out for insight

and cry aloud for understanding,

4and if you look for it as for silver

and search for it as for hidden treasure,

5then you will understand the fear of the Lord

and find the knowledge of God.

6For the Lord gives wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

7He holds success in store for the upright,

he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,

8for he guards the course of the just

and protects the way of his faithful ones.

9Then you will understand what is right and just

and fair—every good path.

10For wisdom will enter your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

11Discretion will protect you,

and understanding will guard you.

12Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,

from men whose words are perverse,

13who have left the straight paths

to walk in dark ways,

14who delight in doing wrong

and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,

15whose paths are crooked

and who are devious in their ways.

16Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,

from the wayward woman with her seductive words,

17who has left the partner of her youth

and ignored the covenant she made before God.^a

18Surely her house leads down to death

and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

19None who go to her return

or attain the paths of life.

20Thus you will walk in the ways of the good

and keep to the paths of the righteous.

21For the upright will live in the land,

and the blameless will remain in it;

22but the wicked will be cut off from the land,

and the unfaithful will be torn from it.