| 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! |