| 1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee, | 1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, |
| 2 That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence: | 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; |
| 3 For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence: | 3 yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, |
| 4 If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure: | 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures; |
| 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God. | 5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. |
| 6 Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge. | 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; |
| 7 He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity. | 7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, |
| 8 Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints. | 8 guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his saints. |
| 9 Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path. | 9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; |
| 10 If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul: | 10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; |
| 11 Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee, | 11 discretion will watch over you; understanding will guard you; |
| 12 That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things: | 12 delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, |
| 13 Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways: | 13 who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, |
| 14 Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things: | 14 who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil; |
| 15 Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous. | 15 men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. |
| 16 That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words: | 16 You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her smooth words, |
| 17 And forsaketh the guide of her youth, | 17 who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; |
| 18 And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell. | 18 for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the shades; |
| 19 None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life, | 19 none who go to her come back nor do they regain the paths of life. |
| 20 That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just. | 20 So you will walk in the way of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. |
| 21 For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it. | 21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and men of integrity will remain in it; |
| 22 But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it. | 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. |