Proverbs 2

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

My son, if you accept my sayings, And lay up my commands with you,

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.

To cause your ear to attend to wisdom, You incline your heart to understanding,

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

For if you call for intelligence, [And] give forth your voice for intelligence,

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

If you seek her as silver, And search for her as hid treasures,

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

Then you understand the fear of YHWH, And you find the knowledge of God.

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

For YHWH gives wisdom, Knowledge and understanding from His mouth.

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

Even to lay up substance for the upright, A shield for those walking uprightly.

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

To keep the paths of judgment, And He preserves the way of His saints.

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

Then you understand righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness—every good path.

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

For wisdom comes into your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,

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

Thoughtfulness watches over you, Understanding keeps you,

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

To deliver you from an evil way, From any speaking contrary things,

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

Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness,

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

Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in [the] contrariness of the wicked,

15 whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;

Whose paths [are] crooked, Indeed, they are perverted in their ways.

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 you from the strange woman, From the stranger who has made her sayings smooth,

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

Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And has forgotten 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 has inclined to death, And her paths to Rephaim.

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 going in to her return, Nor do they reach the paths of life.

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

That you go in the way of the good, 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 inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it,

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

And the wicked are cut off from the earth, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!