The Benefits of Wisdom

1My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,

2so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

3yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

4if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures;

5then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of God.

6For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

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

8that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.

9Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

10For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

11Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

12to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,

13who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,

14who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil,

15who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,

16to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,

17who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God;

18for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits.

19None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.

20Therefore walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

21For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

22But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.