New International Version NIV
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
1 My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind;
2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
2 So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge;
3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
3 Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge;
4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
4 If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth;
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORDand find the knowledge of God.
5 Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason:
7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
7 He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil;
8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
8 He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path.
9 Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;
11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.
11 Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you;
12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse,
12 Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false;
13 who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways,
13 Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads;
14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
14 Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;
15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
15 Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil:
16 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
16 To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue;
17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.
17 Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:
18 Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
18 For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:
19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.
19 Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:
20 Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.
20 So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright.
21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;
21 For the upright will be living in the land, and the good will have it for their heritage.
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
22 But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted.
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.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.