Holy Bible - American Standard Version(ASV)

¹My son, if thou wilt receive my words,

And lay up my commandments with thee;

²So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom,

And apply thy heart to understanding;

³Yea, if thou cry after discernment,

And lift up thy voice for understanding;

⁴If thou seek her as silver,

And search for her as for hid treasures:

⁵Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah,

And find the knowledge of God.

⁶For Jehovah giveth wisdom;

Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding:

⁷He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright;

He is a shield to them that walk in integrity;

⁸That he may guard the paths of justice,

And preserve the way of his saints.

⁹Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice,

And equity, yea, every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom shall enter into thy heart,

And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;

¹¹Discretion shall watch over thee;

Understanding shall keep thee:

¹²To deliver thee from the way of evil,

From the men that speak perverse things;

¹³Who forsake the paths of uprightness,

To walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴Who rejoice to do evil,

And delight in the perverseness of evil;

¹⁵Who are crooked in their ways,

And wayward in their paths:

¹⁶To deliver thee from the strange woman,

Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words;

¹⁷That forsaketh the friend of her youth,

And forgetteth the covenant of her God:

¹⁸For her house inclineth unto death,

And her paths unto the dead;

¹⁹None that go unto her return again,

Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:

²⁰That thou mayest walk in the way of good men,

And keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright shall dwell in the land,

And the perfect shall remain in it.

²²But the wicked shall be cut off from the land,

And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.