| English Standard Version | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, | 1My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, |
| 2making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; | 2listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding; |
| 3yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, | 3furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, |
| 4if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, | 4if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, |
| 5then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. | 5then you will understand the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. |
| 6For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; | 6For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. |
| 7he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, | 7He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity |
| 8guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. | 8so that He may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His loyal followers. |
| 9Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; | 9Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and integrity--every good path. |
| 10for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; | 10For wisdom will enter your mind, and knowledge will delight your heart. |
| 11discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, | 11Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you, |
| 12delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, | 12rescuing you from the way of evil-- from the one who says perverse things, |
| 13who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, | 13from those who abandon the right paths to walk in ways of darkness, |
| 14who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, | 14from those who enjoy doing evil and celebrate perversion, |
| 15men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. | 15whose paths are crooked, and whose ways are devious. |
| 16So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, | 16It will rescue you from a forbidden woman, from a stranger with her flattering talk, |
| 17who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; | 17who abandons the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; |
| 18for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; | 18for her house sinks down to death and her ways to the land of the departed spirits. |
| 19none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. | 19None return who go to her; none reach the paths of life. |
| 20So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. | 20So follow the way of good people, and keep to the paths of the righteous. |
| 21For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, | 21For the upright will inhabit the land, and those of integrity will remain in it; |
| 22but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. | 22but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous uprooted from it. |
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