Study

The Value of Wisdom

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My child, if you accept my words

and treasure up my commandments within you,

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making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding;

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if you indeed cry out for insight,

and raise your voice for understanding;

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if you seek it like silver,

and search for it as for hidden treasures—

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then you will understand the fear of the L ord

and find the knowledge of God.

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For the L ord gives wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

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he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,

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guarding the paths of justice

and preserving the way of his faithful ones.

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Then you will understand righteousness and justice

and equity, every good path;

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for wisdom will come into your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

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prudence will watch over you;

and understanding will guard you.

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It will save you from the way of evil,

from those who speak perversely,

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who forsake the paths of uprightness

to walk in the ways of darkness,

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who rejoice in doing evil

and delight in the perverseness of evil;

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those whose paths are crooked,

and who are devious in their ways.

 

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You will be saved from the loose woman,

from the adulteress with her smooth words,

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who forsakes the partner of her youth

and forgets her sacred covenant;

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for her way leads down to death,

and her paths to the shades;

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those who go to her never come back,

nor do they regain the paths of life.

 

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Therefore walk in the way of the good,

and keep to the paths of the just.

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For the upright will abide in the land,

and the innocent will remain in it;

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but the wicked will be cut off from the land,

and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.