1My son, if you accept my words
and hide my commandments within you,
1My son, if you receive my words and you treasure my commands within you,
2if you incline your ear to wisdom
and direct your heart to understanding,
2to make your ear attentive to wisdom, you incline your heart to understanding.
3if you truly call out to insight
and lift your voice to understanding,
3For if you call out for understanding, and for insight you give forth your voice,
4if you seek it like silver
and search it out like hidden treasure,
4if you seek her like silver, and like hidden treasures you search for her,
5then you will discern the fear of the LORD
and discover the knowledge of God.
5then you will understand the fear of YHWH, and the knowledge of God you will find.
6For the LORD gives wisdom;
from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
6For YHWH gives wisdom; from His mouth is knowledge and understanding.
7He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk with integrity,
7He stores up for the upright good sense—protection for those walking with integrity.
8to guard the paths of justice
and protect the way of His saints.
8He watches over the paths of justice, and the way of His holy ones He guards.
9Then you will discern righteousness
and justice and equity—every good path.
9Then you will understand righteousness and justice and uprightness, every good path.
10For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will delight your soul.
10For wisdom will enter into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11Discretion will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you,
11Discretion will guard over you; understanding will guard you,
12to deliver you from the way of evil,
from the man who speaks perversity,
12to snatch you from the way of evil, from the man speaking perversity—
13from those who leave the straight paths
to walk in the ways of darkness,
13those abandoning the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
14from those who enjoy doing evil
and rejoice in the twistedness of evil,
14those glad to do evil, they rejoice in the perversity of evil,
15whose paths are crooked
and whose ways are devious.
15whose ways are crooked, and who are turning aside in their paths.
16It will rescue you from the forbidden woman,a
from the strangerb with seductive words
16It will deliver you from a strange woman, from a foreign woman having made smooth her words,
17who abandons the partner of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God.
17the one having forsaken the guide of her youth, and she has forgotten the covenant of her God.
18For her house sinks down to death,
and her tracks to the departed spirits.a
18For her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the Rephaim.
19None who go to her return
or negotiate the paths of life.
19Of all those coming to her, none will return, nor will they reach the paths of life.
20So you will follow in the ways of the good,
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
20So you must walk in the way of the good ones, and guard the paths of the righteous ones.
21For the upright will inhabit the land,
and the blameless will remain in it;
21For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless ones will remain in it.
22but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the unfaithful will be uprooted.
22And the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and treacherous ones will be plucked out from it.