New Living Translation NLT
The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
1 My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands.
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My son, if you will receive my words and store my commands inside you,
2 Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.
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paying attention to wisdom inclining your mind toward understanding
3 Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.
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yes, if you will call for insight and raise your voice for discernment,
4 Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.
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if you seek it as you would silver and search for it as for hidden treasure -
5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God.
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then you will understand the fear of ADONAI and find knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
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For ADONAI gives wisdom; from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
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He stores up common sense for the upright, is a shield to those whose conduct is blameless,
8 He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him.
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in order to guard the courses of justice and preserve the way of those faithful to him.
9 Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair, and you will find the right way to go.
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Then you will understand righteousness, justice, fairness and every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.
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For wisdom will enter your heart, knowledge will be enjoyable for you,
11 Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.
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discretion will watch over you, and discernment will guard you.
12 Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted.
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They will save you from the way of evil and from those who speak deceitfully,
13 These men turn from the right way to walk down dark paths.
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who leave the paths of honesty to walk the ways of darkness,
14 They take pleasure in doing wrong, and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil.
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who delight in doing evil and take joy in being stubbornly deceitful,
15 Their actions are crooked, and their ways are wrong.
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from those whose tracks are twisted and whose paths are perverse.
16 Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman, from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman.
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They will save you from a woman who is a stranger, from a loose woman with smooth talk,
17 She has abandoned her husband and ignores the covenant she made before God.
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who abandons the ruler she had in her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
18 Entering her house leads to death; it is the road to the grave.
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Her house is sinking toward death, her paths lead to the dead.
19 The man who visits her is doomed. He will never reach the paths of life.
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None who go to her return; they never regain the path to life.
20 Follow the steps of good men instead, and stay on the paths of the righteous.
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Thus you will walk on the way of good people and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For only the godly will live in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it.
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For the upright will live in the land, the pure-hearted will remain there;
22 But the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted.
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but the wicked will be cut off from the land, the unfaithful rooted out of it.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.