The Benefits of Wisdom 1 UDB My son, listen to what I say, and consider my commands to be as valuable as a treasure. BSB BSB: My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,
2 UDB Pay attention to wisdom and try hard to understand what is wise. BSB BSB: if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding,
3 UDB Call out to Yahweh to get insight; plead with him to help you understand more of what he wants you to know. BSB BSB: if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,
4 UDB Search eagerly for wisdom, like you would search for silver— like you would search for a treasure that someone has hidden. BSB BSB: if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,
5 UDB If you do that, you will understand how to give Yahweh the respect he deserves, and you will succeed in knowing God. BSB BSB: then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.
6 UDB Yahweh is the one who gives us wisdom. He is the one who tells us things that we need to know and understand. BSB BSB: For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 UDB He stores up good advice so he can give it to those who honor him by the way they live their lives. He protects those who do with their lives what they say with their lips. BSB BSB: He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity,
8 UDB He guards justice and works to see it is done, and he keeps safe those who are faithful to him. BSB BSB: to guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His saints.
9 UDB You will understand what Yahweh sees is right and what Yahweh determines is just to do, and he will show you the best way to live. BSB BSB: Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity—every good path.
10 UDB Wisdom will fill your life; knowing what Yahweh wants you to know will cause you to be joyful. BSB BSB: For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul.
11 UDB You will learn to tell the difference between right and wrong and that will keep you safe. BSB BSB: Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you,
12 UDB You will not do what Yahweh forbids you to do, and you will stay away from those who imagine horrible things and talk about them. BSB BSB: to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity,
13 UDB They go the wrong way, and they walk where there is no light. BSB BSB: from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 UDB They are glad when they do what is wrong; they twist good things into bad and enjoy doing what they know is wrong. BSB BSB: from those who enjoy doing evil and rejoice in the twistedness of evil,
15 UDB They bend the truth and live by deception and their lies hide what they have done. BSB BSB: whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious.
16 UDB Wisdom will keep you safe from the adulterous woman, and will keep you away from an immoral woman who invites you to be with her. BSB BSB: It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words
17 UDB Those women left the husbands they married when they were young; they forgot the promise they made to God to love only the one they married. BSB BSB: who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
18 UDB Those who enter her house are taken to their death because the way to her house takes them where dead people are buried. BSB BSB: For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.
19 UDB All who go to her to sleep with her have no way to get out of her house; they will be so lost they will never find the way back to life. BSB BSB: None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.
20 UDB You must live your life in the same way that good men are living. You should do the same things as those who do what is right. BSB BSB: So you will follow in the ways of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 UDB Those who do what is right will receive the land as a gift from Yahweh, and only those who do what they have promised will stay in the land for a long time. BSB BSB: For the upright will inhabit the land, and the blameless will remain in it;
22 UDB Those who do bad things will have no claim to this land, and people who take advantage of others and do not keep their word will never have even a small part of the land. BSB BSB: but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.