Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind;

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

2 So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge;

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

3 Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge;

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

4 If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth;

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

5 Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours.

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

6 For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason:

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

7 He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil;

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

8 He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him.

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

9 Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way.

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

10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;

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

11 Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you;

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

12 Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false;

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

13 Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads;

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

14 Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;

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

15 Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil:

whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious.

16 To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue;

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

17 Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:

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

18 For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:

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

19 Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:

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

20 So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright.

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

21 For the upright will be living in the land, and the good will have it for their heritage.

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

22 But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted.

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