Proverbs 2

¹ My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,

² so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

³ yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

⁴ if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures;

⁵ then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

⁷ He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

⁸ that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.

⁹ Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹ Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

¹² to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,

¹³ who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁴ who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵ who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,

¹⁶ to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,

¹⁷ who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God;

¹⁸ for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits.

¹⁹ None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.

²⁰ Therefore walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹ For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

²² But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.

¹ MMy son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee,

² That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: incline thy heart to know prudence.

³ For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:

⁴ If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:

⁵ Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God:

⁶ Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.

⁷ He wilt keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity,

⁸ Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.

⁹ Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.

¹⁰ If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:

¹¹ Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,

¹² That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:

¹³ Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:

¹⁴ Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in the most wicked things:

¹⁵ Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.

¹⁶ That thou mayst be delivered from the strange woman, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words;

¹⁷ And forsaketh the guide of her youth,

¹⁸ And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.

¹⁹ None that go in unto her, shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life.

²⁰ That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.

²¹ For they that are upright, shall dwell in the earth; and the simple shall continue in it.

²² But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly, shall be taken away from it.