• The Value of Wisdom

  • 1 My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you,
  • 2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding;
  • 3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding,
  • 4 If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures;
  • 5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God.
  • 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
  • 7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
  • 8 He guards the paths of justice, And preserves the way of His saints.
  • 9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.
  • 10 When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
  • 11 Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you,
  • 12 To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things,
  • 13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness;
  • 14 Who rejoice in doing evil, And delight in the perversity of the wicked;
  • 15 Whose ways are crooked, And who are devious in their paths;
  • 16 To deliver you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words,
  • 17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God.
  • 18 For her house leads down to death, And her paths to the dead;
  • 19 None who go to her return, Nor do they regain the paths of life—
  • 20 So you may walk in the way of goodness, And keep to the paths of righteousness.
  • 21 For the upright will dwell in the land, And the blameless will remain in it;
  • 22 But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.