1 My son, if you take my words{amarai: personal utterances} and treasure my commandments{mitzvotai: binding instructions} with you,
2 So that your ear listens closely to wisdom {chokhmah: applied skill} and you bend your heart toward understanding {tevunah: discernment through insight}.
3 For if you call for understanding {binah: ability to discern} and lift up your voice for discernment {tevunah: deep insight},
4 If you seek her {tevakshenna: resolute pursuit} as silver and search for her as hidden treasures {matmonim: secret stores}.
5 Then you will come to understand the fear {yirʾat: reverential awe} of the LORD {YHWH, Awe-Inspiring Ruler} and you will find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD {YHWH, Wisdom Giver} is the one who grants wisdom; knowledge {daʿat: discernment} and understanding come from what He speaks.
7 He keeps sound wisdom in store for the upright {yasharim: morally straight}; He becomes a shield {magen: protective covering} for those who walk in integrity.
8 The LORD {YHWH, Upholder of Justice} watches over the paths of justice and keeps the way of His faithful ones {hasidav: loyal in mercy}.
9 Then you will understand righteousness {tsedek: moral rightness}, justice, and equity in every good path {maagal: moral direction}.
10 For wisdom will come into your heart {lev: seat of understanding}, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul {nephesh: inner being}.
11 Discretion {mezimmah: careful discernment} will guard over you, and understanding {tevunah: perceptive insight} will preserve you.
12 To deliver you from the way {derekh: pathway of conduct} of evil and from a man speaking perversions {tahpukhot: twisted words}.
13 Those who leave the paths {orkhoth: moral routes} of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness {choshekh: moral obscurity}.
14 Those who rejoice {hasemechim: delighting in wrongdoing} to do evil and exult in the perversities {tahpukhoth: moral distortions} of evil.
15 Whose paths are crooked {iqqeshim: morally twisted} and who are devious in their ways {nelozim: deceitful wanderers}
16 To deliver you from a strange {zarah: outsider with illicit intent} woman, from a foreign woman whose words {amareha: utterances} are smooth.
17 She who leaves the companion {alluf: closest and most trusted associate} of her youth and has forgotten the covenant of her God {Elohim, Covenant Witness}.
18 For her house slopes down toward death, and her paths {ma'aggeloteha: fatal tracks} lead to the shades {refa'im: departed spirits}.
19 All who go {ba’eha: approach her} will not return, and they will not attain the paths of life {chayyim: ongoing existence}.
20 So that you may walk in the way of the good {tovim: morally upright} and keep the paths of the righteous {tsaddiqim: just}.
21 For the upright {yesharim: morally straight} will live in the land, and the blameless {temimim: whole in integrity} will stay there.
22 But the wicked {ursha’im: morally corrupt ones} will be removed from the land, and the treacherous {bogdim: faithless betrayers} will be torn out of it.