⁹ Then you will understand^(D) what is right and just
    and fair—every good path.
¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart,^(E)
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
¹¹ Discretion will protect you,
    and understanding will guard you.^(F)

¹² Wisdom will save^(G) you from the ways of wicked men,
    from men whose words are perverse,
¹³ who have left the straight paths
    to walk in dark ways,^(H)
14 who delight in doing wrong
    and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,^(I)
15 whose paths are crooked^(J)
    and who are devious in their ways.^(K)

¹⁶ Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,^(L)
    from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
¹⁷ who has left the partner of her youth
    and ignored the covenant she made before God.^[a](M)
18 Surely her house leads down to death
    and her paths to the spirits of the dead.^(N)
19 None who go to her return
    or attain the paths of life.^(O)

²⁰ Thus you will walk in the ways of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.
²¹ For the upright will live in the land,^(P)
    and the blameless will remain in it;
²² but the wicked^(Q) will be cut off from the land,^(R)
    and the unfaithful will be torn from it.^(S)

¹⁹ Sin is not ended by multiplying words,
    but the prudent hold their tongues.^(A)

³ A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride,^(A)
    but the lips of the wise protect them.^(B)

¹⁰ The name of the Lord is a fortified tower;^(A)
    the righteous run to it and are safe.^(B)

²³ Those who guard their mouths^(A) and their tongues
    keep themselves from calamity.^(B)

⁵ In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls,^(A)
    but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.