NET Bible | New Living Translation |
1My child, if you receive my words, and store up my commands within you, | 1My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. |
2by making your ear attentive to wisdom, and by turning your heart to understanding, | 2Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. |
3indeed, if you call out for discernment--raise your voice for understanding-- | 3Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. |
4if you seek it like silver, and search for it like hidden treasure, | 4Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. |
5then you will understand how to fear the LORD, and you will discover knowledge about God. | 5Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God. |
6For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. | 6For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. |
7He stores up effective counsel for the upright, and is like a shield for those who live with integrity, | 7He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity. |
8to guard the paths of the righteous and to protect the way of his pious ones. | 8He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him. |
9Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity--every good way. | 9Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go. |
10For wisdom will enter your heart, and moral knowledge will be attractive to you. | 10For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy. |
11Discretion will protect you, understanding will guard you, | 11Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe. |
12to deliver you from the way of the wicked, from those speaking perversity, | 12Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted. |
13who leave the upright paths to walk on the dark ways, | 13These men turn from the right way to walk down dark paths. |
14who delight in doing evil, they rejoice in perverse evil; | 14They take pleasure in doing wrong, and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil. |
15whose paths are morally crooked, and who are devious in their ways; | 15Their actions are crooked, and their ways are wrong. |
16to deliver you from the adulteress, from the sexually loose woman who speaks flattering words; | 16Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman. |
17who leaves the husband from her younger days, and forgets her marriage covenant made before God. | 17She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God. |
18For her house sinks down to death, and her paths lead to the place of the departed spirits. | 18Entering her house leads to death; it is the road to the grave. |
19None who go in to her will return, nor will they reach the paths of life. | 19The man who visits her is doomed. He will never reach the paths of life. |
20So you will walk in the way of good people, and will keep on the paths of the righteous. | 20So follow the steps of the good, and stay on the paths of the righteous. |
21For the upright will reside in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, | 21For only the godly will live in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it. |
22but the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be torn away from it. | 22But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted. |
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