The Reward of Seeking Wisdom
1My son, if you accept my words and store up my commandments within you, 2making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3if indeed you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding; 4if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, 5then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and you will find the knowledge of God. 6For Yahweh gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7He stores up sound judgment for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his faithful ones. 9Then you will understand righteousness, justice and fairness—every good track. 10For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be a delight to your soul; 11discretion will keep watch over you, understanding will guard you,
What Wisdom Rescues You From
12to rescue you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks what is twisted, 13from those who abandon the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, 14who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the twistedness of evil, 15whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their tracks; 16to rescue you from the woman who is not yours, from the foreign woman with her smooth words, 17who abandons the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. 18For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the shades; 19none who go in to her come back, nor do they reach the paths of life. 20So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous; 21for the upright will dwell in the land, and those of integrity will remain in it, 22but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous torn out of it.
