1
My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee;
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So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thy heart to understanding;
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Yea, if thou cry after discernment, And lift up thy voice for understanding;
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If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures:
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Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, And find the knowledge of God.
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For Jehovah giveth wisdom; Out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding:
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He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright; [He is] a shield to them that walk in integrity;
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That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints.
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Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, And equity, [yea], every good path.
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For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;
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Discretion shall watch over thee; Understanding shall keep thee:
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To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak perverse things;
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Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness;
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Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil;
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Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths:
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To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words;
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That forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God:
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For her house inclineth unto death, And her paths unto the dead;
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None that go unto her return again, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:
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That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous.
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For the upright shall dwell in the land, And the perfect shall remain in it.
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But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.
