| Bible in Basic English (BBE) |
New International Version (NIV) |
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1 My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind;
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1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
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2 So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge;
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2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,
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3 Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge;
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3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
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4 If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth;
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4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
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5 Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours.
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5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
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6 For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason:
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6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
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7 He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil;
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7 He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
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8 He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him.
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8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
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9 Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way.
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9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path.
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10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;
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10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
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11 Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you;
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11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.
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12 Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false;
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12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse,
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13 Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads;
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13 who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways,
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14 Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;
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14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
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15 Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil:
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15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
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16 To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue;
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16 It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words,
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17 Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:
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17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.
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18 For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:
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18 For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
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19 Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:
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19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.
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20 So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright.
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20 Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.
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21 For the upright will be living in the land, and the good will have it for their heritage.
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21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;
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22 But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted.
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22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
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| The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain. (The Bible in Basic English Version Online) |
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) |
