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Moral Benefits of Wisdom

1  My son, if you accept my words

          and store up my commands within you,

2  Turning your ear to wisdom

          and applying your heart to understanding –

3  Indeed, if you call out for insight

          and cry aloud  for understanding,

4  And if you look for it as for silver

          and search for it as for hidden treasure,

5  Then you will understand the fear of the LORD

          and find the knowledge of God.

6  For the LORD gives wisdom;

          from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

7  He holds success in store for the upright,

          he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,

8  For he guards the course of the just

     and protects the way of his faithful ones.

9  Then you will understand what is right and just

          and fair – every good path.

10  For wisdom will enter your heart,

          and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

11  Discretion will protect you,

          and understanding will guard you.

12  Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,

          from men whose words are perverse,

13  Who have left the straight paths

          to walk in dark ways,

14  Who delight in doing wrong

          and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,

15  Whose paths are crooked

          and who are devious in their ways.

16  Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,

          from the wayward woman with her seductive words,

17  Who has left the partner of her youth

          and ignored the covenant she made before God.

18  Surely her house leads down to death

          and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

19  None who go to her return

          or attain the paths of life.

20  Thus you will walk in the ways of the good

          and keep to the paths of the righteous.

21  For the upright will live in the land,

          and the blameless will remain in it;

22  But the wicked will be cut off from the land,

          and the unfaithful will be torn from it.