The Rewards of Wisdom

2 My child, learn what I teach you and never forget what I tell you to do. ² Listen to what is wise and try to understand it. ³ Yes, beg for knowledge; plead for insight. ⁴ Look for it as hard as you would for silver or some hidden treasure. ⁵ If you do, you will know what it means to fear the Lord and you will succeed in learning about God. ^6 (A)It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding. ⁷ He provides help and protection for those who are righteous and honest. ⁸ He protects those who treat others fairly, and guards those who are devoted to him.

⁹ If you listen to me, you will know what is right, just, and fair. You will know what you should do. ¹⁰ You will become wise, and your knowledge will give you pleasure. ¹¹ Your insight and understanding will protect you ¹² and prevent you from doing the wrong thing. They will keep you away from people who stir up trouble by what they say— ¹³ those who have abandoned a righteous life to live in the darkness of sin, ¹⁴ those who find pleasure in doing wrong and who enjoy senseless evil, ¹⁵ unreliable people who cannot be trusted.

¹⁶ You will be able to resist any immoral woman who tries to seduce you with her smooth talk, ¹⁷ who is faithless to her own husband and forgets her sacred vows. ¹⁸ If you go to her house, you are traveling the road to death. To go there is to approach the world of the dead. ¹⁹ No one who visits her ever comes back. He never returns to the road to life. ²⁰ So you must follow the example of good people and live a righteous life. ²¹ Righteous people—people of integrity—will live in this land of ours. ²² But God will snatch the wicked from the land and pull sinners out of it like plants from the ground.