9Then you will understand what is right and just

and fair—every good path.

10For wisdom will enter your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

11Discretion will protect you,

and understanding will guard you.

12Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,

from men whose words are perverse,

13who leave the straight paths

to walk in dark ways,

14who delight in doing wrong

and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,

15whose paths are crooked

and who are devious in their ways.

16It will save you also from the adulteress,

from the wayward wife with her seductive words,

17who has left the partner of her youth

and ignored the covenant she made before God.^a

18For her house leads down to death

and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

19None who go to her return

or attain the paths of life.

20Thus you will walk in the ways of good men

and keep to the paths of the righteous.

21For the upright will live in the land,

and the blameless will remain in it;

22but the wicked will be cut off from the land,

and the unfaithful will be torn from it.