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My son, if you will areceive my words And btreasure my commandments within you,
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aMake your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding;
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For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding;
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If you seek her as asilver And search for her as for bhidden treasures;
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Then you will discern the afear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God.
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For athe Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
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He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a ashield to those who walk in integrity,
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Guarding the paths of justice, And He apreserves the way of His godly ones.
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Then you will discern arighteousness and justice And equity and every bgood course.
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For awisdom will enter your heart And bknowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
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Discretion will aguard you, Understanding will watch over you,
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To adeliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks bperverse things;
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From those who aleave the paths of uprightness To walk in the bways of darkness;
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Who adelight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil;
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Whose paths are acrooked, And who are devious in their ways;
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To adeliver you from the strange woman, From the badulteress who flatters with her words;
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That leaves the acompanion of her youth And forgets the bcovenant of her God;
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For aher house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead;
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None awho go to her return again, Nor do they reach the bpaths of life.
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So you will awalk in the way of good men And keep to the bpaths of the righteous.
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For athe upright will live in the land And bthe blameless will remain in it;
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But athe wicked will be cut off from the land And bthe treacherous will be cuprooted from it.
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
