Yahweh Gives Wisdom

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My son, if you will receive my words

And treasure my commandments within you,

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To make your ear pay attention to wisdom,

Incline your heart to discernment;

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For if you call out for understanding,

Give your voice for discernment;

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If you seek her as silver

And search for her as for hidden treasures;

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Then you will understand the fear of Yahweh

And find the knowledge of God.

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For Yahweh gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and discernment.

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He stores up sound wisdom for the upright,

A shield to those who walk in integrity,

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To guard the paths of justice,

And He keeps the way of His holy ones.

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Then you will understand righteousness and justice

And equity—every good track.

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For wisdom will enter your heart

And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

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Discretion will keep you,

Discernment will guard you,

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To deliver you from the way of evil,

From the man who speaks perverse things;

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From those who forsake the paths of uprightness

To walk in the ways of darkness;

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Who are glad to do evil

And they rejoice in the perversity of evil;

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Whose paths are crooked,

And who are devious in their tracks;

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To deliver you from the [a]strange woman,

From the [b]foreign woman who flatters with her words;

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Who forsakes the close companion of her youth

And forgets the covenant of her God;

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For her house [c]sinks down to death

And her tracks descend to the [d]dead;

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All who go to her will not return,

And they will not reach the paths of life.

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So that you will walk in the way of good men

And keep to the paths of the righteous.

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For the upright will dwell in the land

And the blameless will remain in it;

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But the wicked will be cut off from the land

And the treacherous will be torn away from it.