| New Century Version (NCV) |
New International Version (NIV) |
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1 My child, listen to what I say and remember what I command you.
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1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
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2 Listen carefully to wisdom; set your mind on understanding.
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2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,
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3 Cry out for wisdom, and beg for understanding.
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3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
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4 Search for it like silver, and hunt for it like hidden treasure.
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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 you will understand respect for the Lord, and you will find that you know God.
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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 Only the Lord gives wisdom; he gives knowledge and understanding.
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6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
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7 He stores up wisdom for those who are honest. Like a shield he protects the innocent.
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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 makes sure that justice is done, and he protects those who are loyal to 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 understand what is honest and fair and what is the good and right thing to do.
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9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path.
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10 Wisdom will come into your mind, and knowledge will be pleasing to you.
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10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
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11 Good sense will protect you; understanding will guard you.
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11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.
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12 It will keep you from the wicked, from those whose words are bad,
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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 don't do what is right but what is evil.
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13 who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways,
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14 They enjoy doing wrong and are happy to do what is crooked and evil.
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14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
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15 What they do is wrong, and their ways are dishonest.
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15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
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16 It will save you from the unfaithful wife who tries to lead you into adultery with pleasing words.
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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 She leaves the husband she married when she was young. She ignores the promise she made before God.
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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 Her house is on the way to death; those who took that path are now all dead.
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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 No one who goes to her comes back or walks the path of life again.
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19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.
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20 But wisdom will help you be good and do what is right.
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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 Those who are honest will live in the land, and those who are innocent will remain in it.
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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 the wicked will be removed from the land, and the unfaithful will be thrown out of it.
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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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| Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. (New Century Version Online Bible) |
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) |
