The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind;
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My child, learn what I teach you and never forget what I tell you to do.
2 So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge;
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Listen to what is wise and try to understand it.
3 Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge;
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Yes, beg for knowledge; plead for insight.
4 If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth;
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Look for it as hard as you would for silver or some hidden treasure.
5 Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours.
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If you do, you will know what it means to fear the Lord and you will succeed in learning about God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason:
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It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding.
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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He provides help and protection for those who are righteous and honest.
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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He protects those who treat others fairly, and guards those who are devoted to him.
9 Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way.
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If you listen to me, you will know what is right, just, and fair. You will know what you should do.
10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;
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You will become wise, and your knowledge will give you pleasure.
11 Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you;
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Your insight and understanding will protect you
12 Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false;
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and prevent you from doing the wrong thing. They will keep you away from people who stir up trouble by what they say -
13 Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads;
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those who have abandoned a righteous life to live in the darkness of sin,
14 Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;
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those who find pleasure in doing wrong and who enjoy senseless evil,
15 Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil:
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unreliable people who cannot be trusted.
16 To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue;
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You will be able to resist any immoral woman who tries to seduce you with her smooth talk,
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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who is faithless to her own husband and forgets her sacred vows.
18 For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:
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If you go to her house, you are traveling the road to death. To go there is to approach the world of the dead.
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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No one who visits her ever comes back. He never returns to the road to life.
20 So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright.
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So you must follow the example of good people and live a righteous life.
21 For the upright will be living in the land, and the good will have it for their heritage.
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Righteous people - people of integrity - will live in this land of ours.
22 But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted.
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But God will snatch the wicked from the land and pull sinners out of it like plants from the ground.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.