21 My son , if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, 2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom , Incline your heart to understanding ; 3 For if you cry for discernment , Lift your voice for understanding ; 4 If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures ; 5 Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God . 6 For the Lord gives wisdom ; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding . 7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright ; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity , 8 Guarding the paths of justice , And He preserves the way of His godly ones . 9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity and every good course .
10 For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul ; 11 Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you, 12 To deliver you from the way of evil , From the man who speaks perverse things ; 13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness ; 14 Who delight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil ; 15 Whose paths are crooked , And who are devious in their ways ; 16 To deliver you from the strange woman , From the adulteress who flatters with her words ; 17 That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God ; 18 For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead ; 19 None e who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life . 20 So you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous . 21 For the upright will live in the land And the blameless will remain in it; 22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land And the treacherous will be uprooted from it.
