10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will delight you.
11 Discretion will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you.(A)
12 It will rescue you from the way of evil—
from anyone who says perverse things,
13 from those who abandon the right paths
to walk in ways of darkness,(B)
14 from those who enjoy doing evil(C)
and celebrate perversion,
15 whose paths are crooked,(D)
and whose ways are devious.(E)
16 It will rescue you from a forbidden woman,(F)
from a wayward woman with her flattering talk,(G)
17 who abandons the companion of her youth(H)
and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 for her house sinks down to death
and her ways to the land of the departed spirits.(I)
19 None return who go to her;
none reach the paths of life.(J)
20 So follow the way of the good,(K)
and keep to the paths of the righteous.

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10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 prudence will watch over you,
    and understanding will guard you.
12 It will save you from the way of evil,
    from those who speak perversely,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to walk in the ways of darkness,(A)
14 who rejoice in doing evil
    and delight in the perverseness of evil,(B)
15 those whose paths are crooked
    and who are devious in their ways.(C)

16 You will be saved from the loose woman,[a]
    from the adulteress[b] with her smooth words,(D)
17 who forsakes the partner of her youth
    and forgets her sacred covenant,
18 for her way[c] leads down to death
    and her paths to the shades;(E)
19 those who go to her never come back,
    nor do they regain the paths of life.

20 Therefore walk in the way of the good,
    and keep to the paths of the just.

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Footnotes

  1. 2.16 Heb strange woman
  2. 2.16 Heb alien woman
  3. 2.18 Cn: Heb house