Moral Value of Wisdom

1My son, if you will receive my words, and lay up my commandments with you;

2So that you incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

3Yea, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;

4If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;

5Then shall you understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

6For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

7He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a shield to them that walk uprightly.

8He keeps the paths of justice, and preserves the way of his saints.

9Then shall you understand righteousness, and justice, and equity; yea, every good path.

10When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul;

11Discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you:

12To deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaks perverse things;

13Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

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

15Whose ways are crooked, and who are perverse in their paths:

16To deliver you from the immoral woman, even from the seductress who flatters with her words;

17Who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.

18For her house leads unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

19None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

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

21For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the blameless shall remain in it.

22But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.