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- My son, if thou receivest my words, and layest up my commandments with thee,
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- so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom [and] thou apply thy heart to understanding;
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- yea, if thou criest after discernment [and] liftest up thy voice to understanding;
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- if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hidden treasures:
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- then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, and find the knowledge of God.
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- For Jehovah giveth wisdom;
out of his mouth [come] knowledge and understanding.
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- He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright;
[he] is a shield to them that walk in integrity;
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- guarding the paths of just judgment and keeping the way of his godly ones.
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- Then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity: every good path.
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- When wisdom entereth into thy heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul,
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- discretion shall keep thee, understanding shall preserve thee:
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- To deliver thee from the way of evil, from the man that speaketh froward things;
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- [from those] who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
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- who rejoice to do evil, [and] delight in the frowardness of evil;
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- whose paths are crooked, and who are perverted in their course:
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- To deliver thee from the strange woman, from the stranger who flattereth with her words;
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- who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God;
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- — for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead;
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- none that go unto her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:
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- — that thou mayest walk in the way of the good, and keep the paths of the righteous.
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- For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it;
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- but the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful shall be plucked up out of it.
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