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My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,
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so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
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yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;
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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. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
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He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
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that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.
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Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.
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For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
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Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,
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to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,
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who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,
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who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil,
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who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,
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to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,
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who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God;
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for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits.
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None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.
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Therefore walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
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For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.
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But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
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