2 My son, if you will receive my words,
    and store up my commandments within you,
² so as to turn your ear to wisdom,
    and apply your heart to understanding;
³ yes, if you call out for discernment,
    and lift up your voice for understanding;
⁴ if you seek her as silver,
    and search for her as for hidden treasures:
⁵ then you will understand the fear of Yahweh,
    and find the knowledge of God.^[a]
6 For Yahweh gives wisdom.
    Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
⁷ He lays up sound wisdom for the upright.
    He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
⁸ that he may guard the paths of justice,
    and preserve the way of his saints.
⁹ Then you will understand righteousness and justice,
    equity and every good path.
¹⁰ For wisdom will enter into your heart.
    Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
¹¹ Discretion will watch over you.
    Understanding will keep you,
¹² to deliver you from the way of evil,
    from the men who speak perverse things,
¹³ who forsake the paths of uprightness,
    to walk in the ways of darkness,
¹⁴ who rejoice to do evil,
    and delight in the perverseness of evil,
¹⁵ who are crooked in their ways,
    and wayward in their paths,
¹⁶ to deliver you from the strange woman,
    even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,
¹⁷ who forsakes the friend of her youth,
    and forgets the covenant of her God;
¹⁸ for her house leads down to death,
    her paths to the departed spirits.
¹⁹ None who go to her return again,
    neither do they attain to the paths of life.
²⁰ So you may walk in the way of good men,
    and keep the paths of the righteous.
²¹ For the upright will dwell in the land.
    The perfect will remain in it.
²² But the wicked will be cut off from the land.
    The treacherous will be rooted out of it.

¹³ Happy is the man who finds wisdom,
    the man who gets understanding.
¹⁴ For her good profit is better than getting silver,
    and her return is better than fine gold.
¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies.
    None of the things you can desire are to be compared to her.
¹⁶ Length of days is in her right hand.
    In her left hand are riches and honor.
¹⁷ Her ways are ways of pleasantness.
    All her paths are peace.
¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her.
    Happy is everyone who retains her.
¹⁹ By wisdom Yahweh founded the earth.
    By understanding, he established the heavens.
²⁰ By his knowledge, the depths were broken up,
    and the skies drop down the dew.
²¹ My son, let them not depart from your eyes.
    Keep sound wisdom and discretion:
²² so they will be life to your soul,
    and grace for your neck.
²³ Then you shall walk in your way securely.
    Your foot won’t stumble.
²⁴ When you lie down, you will not be afraid.
    Yes, you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet.