New Living Translation | Berean Study Bible |
1My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. | 1My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you, |
2Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. | 2if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding, |
3Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. | 3if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding, |
4Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures. | 4if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure, |
5Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God. | 5then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. |
6For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. | 6For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. |
7He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity. | 7He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity, |
8He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him. | 8to guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His saints. |
9Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go. | 9Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity—every good path. |
10For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy. | 10For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul. |
11Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe. | 11Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you, |
12Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted. | 12to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity, |
13These men turn from the right way to walk down dark paths. | 13from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness, |
14They take pleasure in doing wrong, and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil. | 14from those who enjoy doing evil and rejoice in the twistedness of evil, |
15Their actions are crooked, and their ways are wrong. | 15whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious. |
16Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman. | 16It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words |
17She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God. | 17who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. |
18Entering her house leads to death; it is the road to the grave. | 18For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits. |
19The man who visits her is doomed. He will never reach the paths of life. | 19None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life. |
20So follow the steps of the good, and stay on the paths of the righteous. | 20So you will follow in the ways of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous. |
21For only the godly will live in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it. | 21For the upright will inhabit the land, and the blameless will remain in it; |
22But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted. | 22but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted. |
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