Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you,

[My] son, if you will receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with you;

2 so that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudence.

your ear shall listen to wisdom; you shall also apply your heart to understanding, and shall apply it to the instruction of your son.

3 For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence,

For it you shall call to wisdom, and utter your voice for understanding;

4 if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure,

and if you shall seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures;

5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God.

then shall you understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

6 For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge.

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

7 He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity:

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

8 serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity.

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

9 Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path.

Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment; and shall direct all your course aright.

10 If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul,

For if wisdom shall come into your understanding, and discernment shall seem pleasing to your soul,

11 then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you,

good counsel shall guard you, and holy understanding shall keep you;

12 so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities,

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

13 from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways,

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

14 who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things.

who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;

15 Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous.

whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;

16 So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech,

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

17 and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth,

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

18 and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell. (questioned)

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

19 All those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of life.

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.

20 So may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the just.

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

21 For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it.

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

22 Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.

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