Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,

My son, if you will receive my words, and hide my commandments with you;

2 if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding,

So that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

3 if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,

Yes, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;

4 if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,

If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;

5 then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.

Then shall you understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity,

He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

8 to guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His saints.

He keeps the paths of judgment, and preserves the way of his saints.

9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity—every good path.

Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yes, every good path.

10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul.

When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul;

11 Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you,

Discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you:

12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity,

To deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaks fraudulent things;

13 from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness,

Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

14 from those who enjoy doing evil and rejoice in the twistedness of evil,

Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;

15 whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious.

Whose ways are crooked, and they fraudulent in their paths:

16 It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words

To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flatters with her words;

17 who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

Which forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.

18 For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.

For her house inclines to death, and her paths to the dead.

19 None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

None that go to her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

20 So you will follow in the ways of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous.

That you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and the blameless will remain in it;

For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.

But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.