The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 Good friend, take to heart what I'm telling you; collect my counsels and guard them with your life.
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My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 Tune your ears to the world of Wisdom; set your heart on a life of Understanding.
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making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 That's right - if you make Insight your priority, and won't take no for an answer,
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yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
4 Searching for it like a prospector panning for gold, like an adventurer on a treasure hunt,
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if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 Believe me, before you know it Fear-of-God will be yours; you'll have come upon the Knowledge of God.
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then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
6 And here's why: God gives out Wisdom free, is plainspoken in Knowledge and Understanding.
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For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 He's a rich mine of Common Sense for those who live well, a personal bodyguard to the candid and sincere.
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he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 He keeps his eye on all who live honestly, and pays special attention to his loyally committed ones.
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guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.
9 So now you can pick out what's true and fair, find all the good trails!
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Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
10 Lady Wisdom will be your close friend, and Brother Knowledge your pleasant companion.
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for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 Good Sense will scout ahead for danger, Insight will keep an eye out for you.
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discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,
12 They'll keep you from making wrong turns, or following the bad directions
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delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,
13 Of those who are lost themselves and can't tell a trail from a tumbleweed,
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who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 These losers who make a game of evil and throw parties to celebrate perversity,
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who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 Traveling paths that go nowhere, wandering in a maze of detours and dead ends.
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men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.
16 Wise friends will rescue you from the Temptress - that smooth-talking Seductress
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So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,
17 Who's faithless to the husband she married years ago, never gave a second thought to her promises before God.
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who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 Her whole way of life is doomed; every step she takes brings her closer to hell.
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for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;
19 No one who joins her company ever comes back, ever sets foot on the path to real living.
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none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 So - join the company of good men and women, keep your feet on the tried and true paths.
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So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 It's the men who walk straight who will settle this land, the women with integrity who will last here.
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For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it,
22 The corrupt will lose their lives; the dishonest will be gone for good.
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but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.