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 sayings, And lay up my commands with you,
2 So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge;
To cause your ear to attend to wisdom, You incline your heart to understanding,
3 Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge;
For if you call for intelligence, [And] give forth your voice for intelligence,
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 hid treasures,
5 Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours.
Then you understand the fear of YHWH, And you find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason:
For YHWH gives wisdom, Knowledge and understanding from His mouth.
7 He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil;
Even to lay up substance for the upright, A shield for those walking uprightly.
8 He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him.
To keep the paths of judgment, And He 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 you understand righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness—every good path.
10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;
For wisdom comes into your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you;
Thoughtfulness watches over you, Understanding keeps you,
12 Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false;
To deliver you from an evil way, From any speaking contrary things,
13 Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads;
Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness,
14 Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;
Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in [the] contrariness of the wicked,
15 Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil:
Whose paths [are] crooked, Indeed, they are perverted in their ways.
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, From the stranger who has made her sayings smooth,
17 Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:
Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And has forgotten 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 has inclined to death, And her paths to Rephaim.
19 Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:
None going in to her return, Nor do they reach 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 go in the way of the good, 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 inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it,
22 But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted.
And the wicked are cut off from the earth, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!
