New International Version | Berean Study Bible |
1My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, | 1My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you, |
2turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding-- | 2if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding, |
3indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, | 3if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, |
4and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, | 4if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure, |
5then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. | 5then you will discern 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 holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, | 7He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity, |
8for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. | 8to guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His saints. |
9Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path. | 9Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity—every good path. |
10For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. | 10For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul. |
11Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. | 11Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you, |
12Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, | 12to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity, |
13who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, | 13from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness, |
14who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, | 14from those who enjoy doing evil and rejoice in the twistedness of evil, |
15whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. | 15whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious. |
16Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, | 16It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words |
17who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. | 17who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. |
18Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. | 18For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits. |
19None who go to her return or attain the paths of life. | 19None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life. |
20Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. | 20So you will follow 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; | 21For the upright will inhabit 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. | 22but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted. |
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