The Blessed Fruits of Wisdom

2 My child, if you welcome my words,

and hold close my commandments,

2 giving heedful ear to wisdom,

and bending your mind to reason;

3 if you seek to invoke understanding.

and lift up your voice to reason,

4 seeking for her as if for silver,

and searching for her as if for treasure:

5 then the fear of the Lord will be plain to you,

and the knowledge of God you will find.

6 For the Lord is the giver of wisdom.

The source of knowledge and insight.

7 He stores up ability for the upright;

he shields the blameless life.

8 He guards the paths of the just,

and he watches the way of the faithful.

9 Then justice and right will be plain to you;

you will keep to all paths that are good.

10 When wisdom will enter your mind,

and in knowledge you find your pleasure,

11 discretion will watch over you,

and understanding will guard you,

12 and save you from wicked ways,

from people of perverse speech,

13 who leave the paths of right,

to walk in ways of darkness –

14 happy in doing wrong,

exulting in wicked perverseness,

15 all crooked in their paths.

and devious in their ways.

16 From the adultress too, it will save you,

the sinning woman of slippery speech,

17 who forsakes the partner of her youth,

and forgets her bond with her God;

18 for her house sinks down to death,

and her paths lead to the place of the dead.

19 None that visit her ever come back,

or arrive at the paths of life.

20 Therefore walk in the way of good people.

Keep in the paths of the righteous,

21 for the upright will live in the land,

and the blameless alone will enjoy it;

22 while bad people are cut off from it.

and the faithless uprooted.