Common English Bible CEB
English Standard Version ESV
1 My son, accept my words and store up my commands.
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My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 Turn your ear toward wisdom, and stretch your mind toward understanding.
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making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 Call out for insight, and cry aloud for understanding.
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yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
4 Seek it like silver; search for it like hidden treasure.
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if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and discover the knowledge of God.
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then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
6 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 reserves ability for those with integrity. He is a shield for those who live a blameless life.
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he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 He protects the paths of justice and guards the way of those who are loyal to him.
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guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, as well as integrity, every good course.
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Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
10 Wisdom will enter your mind, and knowledge will fill you with delight.
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for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 Discretion will guard you; understanding will protect you.
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discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,
12 Wisdom will rescue you from the evil path, from people who twist their words.
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delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,
13 They forsake the way of integrity and go on obscure paths.
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who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 They enjoy doing evil, rejoicing in their twisted evil.
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who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 Their paths are confused; they get lost on their way.
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men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.
16 Wisdom will rescue you from the mysterious woman, from the foreign woman with her slick words.
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So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,
17 She leaves behind the partner of her youth; she even forgets her covenant with God.
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who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 Her house sinks down to death, and her paths go down to the shadowy dead.
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for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;
19 All those who go to her will never return; they will never again reach the ways of the living.
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none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 So you should stay on the path of good people, guarding the road of the righteous.
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So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 Those who have integrity will dwell in the land; the innocent will remain in it.
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For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it,
22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be ripped up.
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but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.