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[1] My son, if thou dost accept my sayings, And my commands dost lay up with thee,
[2] To cause thine ear to attend to wisdom, Thou inclinest thy heart to understanding,
[3] For, if for intelligence thou callest, For understanding givest forth thy voice,
[4] If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her,
[5] Then understandest thou fear of Jehovah, And knowledge of God thou findest.
[6] For Jehovah giveth wisdom, From His mouth knowledge and understanding.
[7] Even to lay up for the upright substance, A shield for those walking uprightly.
[8] To keep the paths of judgment, And the way of His saints He preserveth.
[9] Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness -- every good path.
[10] For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant,
[11] Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee,
[12] To deliver thee from an evil way, From any speaking froward things,
[13] Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness,
[14] Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked,
[15] Whose paths [are] crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways.
[16] To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings,
[17] Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten.
[18] For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths.
[19] None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life.
[20] That thou dost go in the way of the good, And the paths of the righteous dost keep.
[21] For the upright do inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it,
[22] And the wicked from the earth are cut off, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!
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