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[1] My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee,
[2] That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence:
[3] For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:
[4] If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:
[5] Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God.
[6] Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.
[7] He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity.
[8] Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.
[9] Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.
[10] If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:
[11] Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,
[12] That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:
[13] Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:
[14] Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things:
[15] Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.
[16] That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words:
[17] And forsaketh the guide of her youth,
[18] And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.
[19] None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life,
[20] That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.
[21] For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it.
[22] But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.
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