The Value of Wisdom
2 My son, if you will receive my words,
and hide my commandments within you,
2 so that you incline your ear to wisdom,
and apply your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you cry out for knowledge,
and lift up your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek her as silver,
and search for her as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord,
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
out of His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous;
He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.
8 He keeps the paths of justice,
and preserves the way of His saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and judgment
and equity, and every good path.
10 When wisdom enters your heart,
and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 discretion will preserve you;
understanding will keep you,
12 to deliver you from the way of the evil man,
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 rejoice to do evil,
and delight in the perversity of the wicked;
15 whose ways are crooked,
and who are devious in their paths;
16 to deliver you from the immoral woman,
even from the seductress who flatters with her words,
17 who forsakes the guide of her youth,
and forgets the covenant of her God.
18 For her house leads down to death,
and her paths to the departed spirits;
19 none who go to her return again,
nor do they take hold of the paths of life.
20 So you may walk in the way of good men
and keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will dwell in the land,
and the innocent will remain in it;
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the earth,
and the transgressors will be rooted out of it.
