Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 My child, learn what I teach you and never forget what I tell you to do.
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My son, if you will receive my words, And store up my commandments within you;
2 Listen to what is wise and try to understand it.
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So as to turn your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding;
3 Yes, beg for knowledge; plead for insight.
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Yes, if you call out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding;
4 Look for it as hard as you would for silver or some hidden treasure.
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If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures:
5 If you do, you will know what it means to fear the Lord and you will succeed in learning about God.
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Then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, And find the knowledge of God.
6 It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding.
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For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
7 He provides help and protection for those who are righteous and honest.
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He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;
8 He protects those who treat others fairly, and guards those who are devoted to him.
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That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints.
9 If you listen to me, you will know what is right, just, and fair. You will know what you should do.
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Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.
10 You will become wise, and your knowledge will give you pleasure.
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For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11 Your insight and understanding will protect you
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Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,
12 and prevent you from doing the wrong thing. They will keep you away from people who stir up trouble by what they say -
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To deliver you from the way of evil, From the men who speak perverse things;
13 those who have abandoned a righteous life to live in the darkness of sin,
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Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness;
14 those who find pleasure in doing wrong and who enjoy senseless evil,
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Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil;
15 unreliable people who cannot be trusted.
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Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths:
16 You will be able to resist any immoral woman who tries to seduce you with her smooth talk,
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To deliver you from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;
17 who is faithless to her own husband and forgets her sacred vows.
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Who forsakes the friend of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God:
18 If you go to her house, you are traveling the road to death. To go there is to approach the world of the dead.
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For her house leads down to death, Her paths to the dead.
19 No one who visits her ever comes back. He never returns to the road to life.
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None who go to her return again, Neither do they attain to the paths of life:
20 So you must follow the example of good people and live a righteous life.
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That you may walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous.
21 Righteous people - people of integrity - will live in this land of ours.
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For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.
22 But God will snatch the wicked from the land and pull sinners out of it like plants from the ground.
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But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.