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[1] My son, if thou wilt receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with thee;
[2] thine ear shall hearken to wisdom; thou shalt also apply thine heart to understanding, and shalt apply it to the instruction of thy son.
[3] For it thou shalt call to wisdom, and utter thy voice for understanding;
[4] and if thou shalt seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures;
[5] then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
[6] For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come knowledge and understanding,
[7] and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way;
[8] that he may guard the righteous ways: and he will preserve the way of them that fear him.
[9] Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment; and shalt direct all thy course aright.
[10] For if wisdom shall come into thine understanding, and discernment shall seem pleasing to thy soul,
[11] good counsel shall guard thee, and holy understanding shall keep thee;
[12] to deliver thee from the evil way, and from the man that speaks nothing faithfully.
[13] Alas for those who forsake right paths, to walk in ways of darkness;
[14] who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;
[15] whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;
[16] to remove thee far from the straight way, and to estrange thee from a righteous purpose. My son, let not evil counsel overtake thee,
[17] of her who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God.
[18] For she has fixed her house near death, and guided her wheels near Hades with the giants.
[19] None that go by her shall return, neither shall they take hold of right paths, for they are not apprehended of the years of life.
[20] For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths of righteousness easy.
[21] For the upright shall dwell in the earth, and the holy shall be left behind in it.
[22] The paths of the ungodly shall perish out of the earth, and transgressors shall be driven away from it.
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