The Value of Wisdom

1My child, if you accept my words

and treasure up my commandments within you,

2making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding;

3if you indeed cry out for insight,

and raise your voice for understanding;

4if you seek it like silver,

and search for it as for hidden treasures—

5then you will understand the fear of the LORD

and find the knowledge of God.

6For the LORD gives wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

7he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,

8guarding the paths of justice

and preserving the way of his faithful ones.

9Then you will understand righteousness and justice

and equity, every good path;

10for wisdom will come into your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

11prudence will watch over you;

and understanding will guard you.

12It will save you from the way of evil,

from those who speak perversely,

13who forsake the paths of uprightness

to walk in the ways of darkness,

14who rejoice in doing evil

and delight in the perverseness of evil;

15those whose paths are crooked,

and who are devious in their ways.

16You will be saved from the loose2.16 Heb strange woman,

from the adulteress with her smooth words,

17who forsakes the partner of her youth

and forgets her sacred covenant;

18for her way2.18 Cn: Heb house leads down to death,

and her paths to the shades;

19those who go to her never come back,

nor do they regain the paths of life.

20Therefore walk in the way of the good,

and keep to the paths of the just.

21For the upright will abide in the land,

and the innocent will remain in it;

22but the wicked will be cut off from the land,

and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.