The Value of Wisdom

2 uMy son, vif you receive my words

and treasure up my commandments with you,

2  making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding;

3  yes, if you call out for insight

and raise your voice wfor understanding,

4  if you seek it like xsilver

and search for it as for yhidden treasures,

5  then zyou will understand the fear of the Lord

and find the knowledge of God.

6  For athe Lord gives wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

7  he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

he is ba shield to those who cwalk in integrity,

8  guarding the paths of justice

and dwatching over the way of his esaints.

9  fThen you will understand grighteousness and justice

and equity, every good path;

10  for wisdom will come into your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

11  hdiscretion will iwatch over you,

understanding will guard you,

12  delivering you from the way of evil,

from men of perverted speech,

13  who forsake the paths of uprightness

to jwalk in the ways of darkness,

14  who krejoice in doing evil

and ldelight in the perverseness of evil,

15  men whose mpaths are crooked,

nand who are odevious in their ways.

16  So pyou will be delivered from the forbidden1 woman,

from qthe adulteress2 with rher smooth words,

17  who forsakes sthe companion of her youth

and forgets tthe covenant of her God;

18  ufor her house sinks down to death,

and her paths to the departed;3

19  none who go to her come back,

nor do they regain the paths of life.

20  So you will walk in the way of the good

and keep to the paths of the righteous.

21  For the upright vwill inhabit the land,

and those with integrity will remain in it,

22  but the wicked will be wcut off from the land,

and the treacherous will be xrooted out of it.

23 When you sit down to eat with a ruler,

observe carefully what1 is before you,

2  and put a knife to your throat

if you are given to appetite.

3  cDo not desire his delicacies,

for they are deceptive food.

4  dDo not toil to acquire wealth;

ebe discerning enough to desist.

5  When your eyes light on it, it is gone,

ffor suddenly it sprouts wings,

flying like an eagle toward heaven.

6  gDo not eat the bread of a man who is hstingy;2

ido not desire his delicacies,

7  for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.3

“Eat and drink!” he says to you,

but his jheart is not with you.

8  You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten,

and waste your pleasant words.

9  Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,

for he will despise the good sense of your words.

10  kDo not move an ancient landmark

or enter the fields of the fatherless,

11  for their lRedeemer is strong;

he will mplead their cause against you.

12  Apply your heart to instruction

and your ear to words of knowledge.

13  Do not withhold ndiscipline from a child;

oif you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

14  If you strike him with the rod,

you will psave his soul from Sheol.

15  qMy son, if your heart is wise,

my heart too will be glad.

16  My rinmost being4 will exult

when your lips speak swhat is right.

17  Let not your heart tenvy sinners,

but continue in uthe fear of the Lord all the day.

18  Surely vthere is a future,

and your whope will not be cut off.

19  Hear, my son, and xbe wise,

and ydirect your heart in the way.

20  Be not among zdrunkards5

or among agluttonous eaters of meat,

21  for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,

and bslumber will clothe them with rags.

22  cListen to your father who gave you life,

dand do not despise your mother when she is old.

23  eBuy truth, and do not sell it;

buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

24  fThe father of the righteous will greatly rejoice;

he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.

25  fLet your father and mother be glad;

let gher who bore you rejoice.

26  My son, give me your heart,

and let your eyes observe6 my ways.

27  For a prostitute is ha deep pit;

ian adulteress7 is a narrow jwell.

28  kShe lies in wait like a robber

and increases the traitors among mankind.

29  lWho has woe? Who has sorrow?

Who has strife? Who has complaining?

Who has mwounds without cause?

Who has nredness of eyes?

30  Those who otarry long over wine;

those who go to try pmixed wine.

31  Do not look at wine when it is red,

when it sparkles in the cup

and goes down smoothly.

32  In the end it qbites like a serpent

and stings like an adder.

33  Your eyes will see strange things,

and your heart utter rperverse things.

34  You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,

like one who lies on the top of a mast.8

35  “They sstruck me,” you will say,9 “but I was not hurt;

they beat me, but I did not feel it.

When shall I awake?

I tmust have another drink.”

24 Be not uenvious of evil men,

nor desire to be vwith them,

2  for their hearts wdevise violence,

and their lips xtalk of trouble.

3  By ywisdom a house is built,

and by understanding it is established;

4  by knowledge the rooms are filled

with all zprecious and pleasant riches.

5  aA wise man is full of strength,

and a man of knowledge enhances his might,

6  for by bwise guidance you can wage your war,

and in cabundance of counselors there is victory.

7  Wisdom is dtoo high for a fool;

in ethe gate he does not open his mouth.

8  Whoever fplans to do evil

will be called a schemer.

9  gThe devising1 of folly is sin,

and hthe scoffer is an abomination to mankind.

10  If you ifaint in the day of adversity,

your strength is small.

11  jRescue those who are being taken away to death;

hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

12  If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”

kdoes not he who lweighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who mkeeps watch over your soul know it,

and will he not repay man naccording to his work?

13  My son, oeat honey, for it is good,

and pthe drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.

14  Know that wisdom is such to your soul;

if you find it, there will be qa future,

and your hope will not be cut off.

15  rLie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous;

do no violence to his home;

16  sfor the righteous falls tseven times and rises again,

but uthe wicked stumble in times of calamity.

17  vDo not rejoice when your enemy falls,

and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,

18  lest the Lord see it and be displeased,

and turn away his anger from him.

19  wFret not yourself because of evildoers,

and be not xenvious of the wicked,

20  for the evil man has no qfuture;

ythe lamp of the wicked will be put out.

21  My son, zfear the Lord and the king,

and do not join with those who do otherwise,

22  for disaster will arise suddenly from them,

and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?

More Sayings of the Wise

23 These also are sayings of athe wise.

bPartiality in judging is not good.

24  Whoever csays to the wicked, “You are in…