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. and 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,
   and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7. He holds victory 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 leave 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. It will save you also from the adulteress,
    from the wayward wife with her seductive words,
17. who has left the partner of her youth
    and ignored the covenant she made before God.
18. For 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 good men
    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.