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 will receive my words, and hide my commandments with you;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes 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 lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

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

He keeps the paths of judgment, and preserves 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 shall you understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yes, every good path.

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

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

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

Discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which forsakes the guide 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 inclines to death, and her paths to the dead.

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

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

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

That you may walk in the way of good men, and keep 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 shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall 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 shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.