- My son, if thou wilt receive the utterance of my
commandment, and hide it with thee;
- thine ear shall hearken to wisdom; thou shalt also apply thine
heart to understanding, and shalt apply it to the instruction of thy son.
- For if thou shalt call to wisdom, and utter thy voice for
understanding;
- and if thou shalt seek it as silver, and search diligently for it
as for treasures;
- then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the
knowledge of God.
- For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come
knowledge and understanding,
- and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will
protect their way;
- that he may guard the righteous way: and he will preserve the way
of them that fear him.
- Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment; and shalt
direct [a] all thy course aright.
- For if wisdom shall come into thine understanding, and discernment
shall seem pleasing to thy soul,
- good counsel shall guard thee, and holy understanding shall keep
thee;
- to deliver thee from the evil way, and from the man that speaks
nothing faithfully.
- Alas for those who forsake right paths, to walk in ways
of darkness;
- who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;
- whose paths are crooked, and their [b]
courses winding;
- to remove thee far from the straight way, and to estrange thee
from a righteous purpose. My son, let not evil counsel
overtake thee,
- of her who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and
forgotten the covenant of God.
- For she has fixed her house near death, and guided her
wheels near Hades with the [c] giants.
- None that go by her shall return, neither shall they take hold of
right paths, for they are not apprehended of the [d] years of life.
- For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths
of righteousness [e] easy.
- For the upright shall dwell in the earth, and the holy shall be
left behind in it.
- The paths of the ungodly shall perish out of the earth, and
transgressors shall be driven away from it.
[a] Lit. all good a les.
[b] Lit. wheel tracks. Compare
Heb. 12. 13.
[c] See Heb.
[d] Singular variation from Heb.
[e] Gr. smooth.
[English translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee
Brenton (1807-1862) originally published by Samuel Bagster & Sons,
Ltd., London, 1851]