¹⁰ For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹ Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

¹² to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things;

¹³ who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴ who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil;

¹⁵ who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths:

¹⁶ To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;

¹⁷ who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God:

¹⁸ for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead.

¹⁹ None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:

²⁰ that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹ For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

²² But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.

¹ My son, don't forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:

² for length of days, and years of life, and peace, will they add to you.

³ Don't let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴ So you will find favor, and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

⁵ Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding.

⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

⁷ Don't be wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil.

⁸ It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.

⁹ Honor Yahweh with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase:

¹⁰ so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

¹¹ My son, don't despise Yahweh's discipline, neither be weary of his reproof:

¹² for whom Yahweh loves, he reproves; even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.

¹³ Happy is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gets understanding.

¹⁴ For her good profit is better than getting silver, and her return is better than fine gold.

¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies. None of the things you can desire are to be compared to her.

¹⁶ Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.

¹⁷ Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths are peace.

¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Happy is everyone who retains her.

¹⁹ By wisdom Yahweh founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens.

²⁰ By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, and the skies drop down the dew.

²¹ My son, let them not depart from your eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion:

²² so they will be life to your soul, and grace for your neck.

²³ Then you shall walk in your way securely. Your foot won't stumble.

²⁴ When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet.

²⁵ Don't be afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it comes:

²⁶ for Yahweh will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being taken.

²⁷ Don't withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it.

²⁸ Don't say to your neighbor, "Go, and come again; tomorrow I will give it to you," when you have it by you.

²⁹ Don't devise evil against your neighbor, since he dwells securely by you.

³⁰ Don't strive with a man without cause, if he has done you no harm.

³¹ Don't envy the man of violence. Choose none of his ways.

³² For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, but his friendship is with the upright.

³³ Yahweh's curse is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the habitation of the righteous.

³⁴ Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.

³⁵ The wise will inherit glory, but shame will be the promotion of fools.

¹ Listen, sons, to a father's instruction. Pay attention and know understanding;

² for I give you sound learning. Don't forsake my law.

³ For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.

⁴ He taught me, and said to me: "Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments, and live.

⁵ Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don't forget, neither swerve from the words of my mouth.

⁶ Don't forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you.

⁷ Wisdom is supreme. Get Wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.

⁸ Esteem her, and she will exalt you. She will bring you to honor, when you embrace her.

⁹ She will give to your head a garland of grace. She will deliver a crown of splendor to you."

¹⁰ Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many.

¹¹ I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in straight paths.

¹² When you go, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble.

¹³ Take firm hold of instruction. Don't let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.

¹⁴ Don't enter into the path of the wicked. Don't walk in the way of evil men.

¹⁵ Avoid it, and don't pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on.

¹⁶ For they don't sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.

¹⁷ For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸ But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light, that shines more and more until the perfect day.

¹⁹ The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don't know what they stumble over.

²⁰ My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings.

²¹ Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart.

²² For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body.

²³ Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.

²⁴ Put away from yourself a perverse mouth. Put corrupt lips far from you.

²⁵ Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

²⁶ Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established.

²⁷ Don't turn to the right hand nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.

¹ My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:

² that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.

³ For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

⁴ But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵ Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

⁶ She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it.

⁷ Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don't depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸ Remove your way far from her. Don't come near the door of her house,

⁹ lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;

¹⁰ lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man's house.

¹¹ You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

¹² and say, "How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

¹³ neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!

¹⁴ I have come to the brink of utter ruin, in the midst of the gathered assembly."