1My son, if you will receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with you;

2your ear shall listen to wisdom; you shall also apply your heart to understanding, and shall apply it to the instruction of your son.

3For if you shall call to wisdom, and utter your voice for understanding;

4and if you shall seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures;

5then shall you understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

6For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come knowledge and understanding,

7and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way;

8that he may guard the righteous ways: and he will preserve the way of them that fear him.

9Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgement; and shall direct ⁵all your course aright.

10For if wisdom shall come into your understanding, and discernment shall seem pleasing to your soul,

11good counsel shall guard you, and holy understanding shall keep you;

12to deliver you from the evil way, and from the man that speaks nothing faithfully.

13Alas for those who forsake right paths, to walk in ways of darkness;

14who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;

15whose paths are crooked, and their ⁶courses winding;

16to remove you far from the straight way, and to estrange you from a righteous purpose. My son, let not evil counsel overtake you,

17of her who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God.

18For she has fixed her house near death, and guided her wheels near Hades with the ⁷giants.

19None that go by her shall return, neither shall they take hold of right paths, for they are not apprehended of the ⁸years of life.

20For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths of righteousness ⁹easy.

21For the upright shall dwell in the earth, and the holy shall be left behind in it.

22The paths of the ungodly shall perish out of the earth, and transgressors shall be driven away from it.