Bible Text & Cross-references:
The advantages of wisdom: and the evils from which it
delivers.
1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments
with thee,
2 That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: incline thy heart to know prudence.
3 For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:
4 If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the
knowledge of God:
6 Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence
and knowledge.
7 He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that
walk in simplicity,
8 Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.
9 Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every
good path.
10 If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:
11 Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,
12 That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that
speaketh perverse things:
13 Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:
14 Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in the most wicked
things:
15 Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.
16 That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the
stranger, who softeneth her words;
17 And forsaketh the guide of her youth,
18 And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth
unto death, and her paths to hell.
19 None that go in unto her, shall return again, neither shall they take
hold of the paths of life.
20 That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the
just.
21 For they that are upright, shall dwell in the earth; and the simple
shall continue in it.
22 *But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do
unjustly, shall be taken away from it.
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*
22: Job xviii. 17.