New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you,
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My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind;
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
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So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge;
3 if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding;
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Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge;
4 if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures—
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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 Lord and find the knowledge of God.
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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;
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For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason:
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
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He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil;
8 guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
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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 righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
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Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way.
10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
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For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;
11 prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you.
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Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you;
12 It will save you from the way of evil, from those who speak perversely,
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Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false;
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
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Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads;
14 who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil;
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Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;
15 those whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.
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Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil:
16 You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,
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To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue;
17 who forsakes the partner of her youth and forgets her sacred covenant;
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Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:
18 for her way leads down to death, and her paths to the shades;
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For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:
19 those who go to her never come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.
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Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:
20 Therefore walk in the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the just.
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So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright.
21 For the upright will abide in the land, and the innocent will remain in it;
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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 treacherous will be rooted out of it.
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But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.