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My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
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So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
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Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
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If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
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Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
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For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
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He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
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He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
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Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
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¶ When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
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Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
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To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
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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 the wicked;
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Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:
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To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
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Which 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 take they hold of the paths of life.
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That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, 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 earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.