The Benefits of Wisdom

1My son, if thou dost accept my sayings, And my commands dost lay up with thee,

2To cause thine ear to attend to wisdom, Thou inclinest thy heart to understanding,

3For, if for intelligence thou callest, For understanding givest forth thy voice,

4If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her,

5Then understandest thou fear of Jehovah, And knowledge of God thou findest.

6For Jehovah giveth wisdom, From His mouth knowledge and understanding.

7Even to lay up for the upright substance, A shield for those walking uprightly.

8To keep the paths of judgment, And the way of His saints He preserveth.

9Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness—every good path.

10For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant,

11Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee,

12To deliver thee from an evil way, From any speaking froward things,

13Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness,

14Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked,

15Whose paths [are] crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways.

16To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings,

17Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten.

18For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths.

19None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life.

20That thou dost go in the way of the good, And the paths of the righteous dost keep.

21For the upright do inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it,

22And the wicked from the earth are cut off, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!