| New International Version | NET Bible |
| 1My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, | 1My child, if you receive my words, and store up my commands within you, |
| 2turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding-- | 2by making your ear attentive to wisdom, and by turning your heart to understanding, |
| 3indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, | 3indeed, if you call out for discernment--raise your voice for 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 for it like hidden treasure, |
| 5then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. | 5then you will understand how to fear the LORD, and you will discover knowledge about God. |
| 6For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. | 6For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. |
| 7He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, | 7He stores up effective counsel for the upright, and is like a shield for those who live with integrity, |
| 8for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones. | 8to guard the paths of the righteous and to protect the way of his pious ones. |
| 9Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path. | 9Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity--every good way. |
| 10For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. | 10For wisdom will enter your heart, and moral knowledge will be attractive to you. |
| 11Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. | 11Discretion will protect you, 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 the wicked, from those speaking perversity, |
| 13who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, | 13who leave the upright paths to walk on the dark ways, |
| 14who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, | 14who delight in doing evil, they rejoice in perverse evil; |
| 15whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. | 15whose paths are morally 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, | 16to deliver you from the adulteress, from the sexually loose woman who speaks flattering words; |
| 17who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. | 17who leaves the husband from her younger days, and forgets her marriage covenant made before 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 paths lead to the place of the departed spirits. |
| 19None who go to her return or attain the paths of life. | 19None who go in to her will return, nor will they reach 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 walk in the way of good people, and will keep on the paths of the righteous. |
| 21For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; | 21For the upright will reside in the land, and those with integrity 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 removed from the land, and the treacherous will be torn away from it. |
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