1 My son, if you accept my sayings, || And lay up my commands with you, 2 To cause your ear to attend to wisdom, || You incline your heart to understanding, 3 For if you call for intelligence, || And give out your voice for intelligence, 4 If you seek her as silver, || And search for her as hid treasures, 5 Then you understand the fear of YHWH, || And you find the knowledge of God. 6 For YHWH gives wisdom, || Knowledge and understanding from His mouth. 7 Even to lay up substance for the upright, || A shield for those walking uprightly. 8 To keep the paths of judgment, || And He preserves the way of His saints. 9 Then you understand righteousness, || And judgment, and uprightness—every good path. 10 For wisdom comes into your heart, || And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, 11 Thoughtfulness watches over you, || Understanding keeps you, 12 To deliver you from an evil way, || From any speaking contrary things, 13 Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, || To walk in ways of darkness, 14 Who are rejoicing to do evil, || They delight in the contrariness of the wicked, 15 Whose paths are crooked, || Indeed, they are perverted in their ways. 16 To deliver you from the strange woman, || From the stranger who has made her sayings smooth, 17 Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, || And has forgotten the covenant of her God. 18 For her house has inclined to death, || And her paths to Rephaim. 19 None going in to her return, || Nor do they reach the paths of life. 20 That you go in the way of the good, || And keep the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright inhabit the earth, || And the perfect are left in it, 22 And the wicked are cut off from the earth, || And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!