Proverbs 2

1 [My] son, if thou wilt receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with thee;

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

2 thine ear shall hearken to wisdom; thou shalt also apply thine heart to understanding, and shalt apply it to the instruction of thy son.

So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, [and] apply thine heart to understanding;

3 For it thou shalt call to wisdom, and utter thy voice for understanding;

Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, [and] liftest up thy voice for understanding;

4 and if thou shalt seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures;

If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as [for] hid treasures;

5 then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

6 For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence [come] knowledge and understanding,

For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding.

7 and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way;

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

8 that he may guard the righteous ways: and he will preserve the way of them that fear him.

He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment; and shalt direct all thy course aright.

Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; [yea], every good path.

10 For if wisdom shall come into thine understanding, and discernment shall seem pleasing to thy soul,

When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

11 good counsel shall guard thee, and holy understanding shall keep thee;

Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

12 to deliver thee from the evil way, and from the man that speaks nothing faithfully.

To deliver thee from the way of the evil [man], from the man that speaketh froward things;

13 Alas [for those] who forsake right paths, to walk in ways of darkness;

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

14 who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;

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

15 whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;

Whose ways [are] crooked, and [they] froward in their paths:

16 to remove thee far from the straight way, and to estrange thee from a righteous purpose. [My] son, let not evil counsel overtake thee,

To deliver thee from the strange woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words;

17 [of her] who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God.

Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

18 For she has fixed her house near death, and [guided] her wheels near Hades with the giants.

For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

19 None that go by her shall return, neither shall they take hold of right paths, for they are not apprehended of the years of life.

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

20 For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths of righteousness easy.

That thou mayest walk in the way of good [men], and keep the paths of the righteous.

21 For the upright shall dwell in the earth, and the holy shall be left behind in it.

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

22 The paths of the ungodly shall perish out of the earth, and transgressors shall be driven away from it.

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