1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding —3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair —every good path.10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.12 Wisdom will save 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,14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.16 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, 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. [^1]18 Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.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, and the blameless will remain in it;22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

1 [Fili mi, si susceperis sermones meos,et mandata mea absconderis penes te :2 ut audiat sapientiam auris tua,inclina cor tuum ad cognoscendam prudentiam.3 Si enim sapientiam invocaveris,et inclinaveris cor tuum prudenti ;4 si qusieris eam quasi pecuniam,et sicut thesauros effoderis illam :5 tunc intelliges timorem Domini,et scientiam Dei invenies,6 quia Dominus dat sapientiam,et ex ore ejus prudentia et scientia.7 Custodiet rectorum salutem,et proteget gradientes simpliciter,8 servans semitas justiti,et vias sanctorum custodiens.9 Tunc intelliges justitiam, et judicium,et quitatem, et omnem semitam bonam.]10 [Si intraverit sapientia cor tuum,et scientia anim tu placuerit,11 consilium custodiet te,et prudentia servabit te :12 ut eruaris a via mala,et ab homine qui perversa loquitur ;13 qui relinquunt iter rectum,et ambulant per vias tenebrosas ;14 qui ltantur cum malefecerint,et exsultant in rebus pessimis ;15 quorum vi pervers sunt,et infames gressus eorum.16 Ut eruaris a muliere aliena,et ab extranea qu mollit sermones suos,17 et relinquit ducem pubertatis su,18 et pacti Dei sui oblita est.Inclinata est enim ad mortem domus ejus,et ad inferos semit ipsius.19 Omnes qui ingrediuntur ad eam non revertentur,nec apprehendent semitas vit.20 Ut ambules in via bona,et calles justorum custodias :21 qui enim recti sunt habitabunt in terra,et simplices permanebunt in ea ;22 impii vero de terra perdentur,et qui inique agunt auferentur ex ea.]