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1.
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
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2.
turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,
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3.
and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
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4.
and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
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5.
then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
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6.
For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
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7.
He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
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8.
for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
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9.
Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path.
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10.
For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
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11.
Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.
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12.
Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse,
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13.
who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways,
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14.
who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
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15.
whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
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16.
It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words,
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17.
who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.
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18.
For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
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19.
None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.
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20.
Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.
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21.
For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;
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22.
but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
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