New Revised Standard NRS
New International Version NIV
1 My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you,
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My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
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turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
3 if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding;
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indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures—
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and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
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then you will understand the fear of the LORDand find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
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For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
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He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
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for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
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Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path.
10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
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For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11 prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you.
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Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.
12 It will save you from the way of evil, from those who speak perversely,
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Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
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who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways,
14 who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil;
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who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
15 those whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.
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whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
16 You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,
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Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
17 who forsakes the partner of her youth and forgets her sacred covenant;
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who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.
18 for her way leads down to death, and her paths to the shades;
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Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
19 those who go to her never come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.
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None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.
20 Therefore walk in the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the just.
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Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will abide in the land, and the innocent will remain in it;
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For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
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but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.