1. |
My son, if thou dost accept my sayings, And my commands dost lay up with thee, |
2. |
To cause thine ear to attend to wisdom, Thou inclinest thy heart to understanding, |
3. |
For, if for intelligence thou callest, For understanding givest forth thy voice, |
4. |
If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her, |
5. |
Then understandest thou fear of Jehovah, And knowledge of God thou findest. |
6. |
For Jehovah giveth wisdom, From His mouth knowledge and understanding. |
7. |
Even to lay up for the upright substance, A shield for those walking uprightly. |
8. |
To keep the paths of judgment, And the way of His saints He preserveth. |
9. |
Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness -- every good path. |
10. |
For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant, |
11. |
Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee, |
12. |
To deliver thee from an evil way, From any speaking froward things, |
13. |
Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness, |
14. |
Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked, |
15. |
Whose paths `are' crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways. |
16. |
To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings, |
17. |
Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten. |
18. |
For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths. |
19. |
None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life. |
20. |
That thou dost go in the way of the good, And the paths of the righteous dost keep. |
21. |
For the upright do inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it, |
22. |
And the wicked from the earth are cut off, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it! |