Proverbs 2
1 My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you,
My son, if thou dost accept my sayings, And my commands dost lay up with thee,
2 so that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudence.
To cause thine ear to attend to wisdom, Thou inclinest thy heart to understanding,
3 For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence,
For, if for intelligence thou callest, For understanding givest forth thy voice,
4 if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure,
If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God.
Then understandest thou fear of Jehovah, And knowledge of God thou findest.
6 For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge.
For Jehovah giveth wisdom, From His mouth knowledge and understanding.
7 He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity:
Even to lay up for the upright substance, A shield for those walking uprightly.
8 serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity.
To keep the paths of judgment, And the way of His saints He preserveth.
9 Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path.
Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness — every good path.
10 If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul,
For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant,
11 then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you,
Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee,
12 so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities,
To deliver thee from an evil way, From any speaking froward things,
13 from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways,
Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness,
14 who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things.
Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked,
15 Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous.
Whose paths [are] crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways.
16 So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech,
To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings,
17 and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth,
Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten.
18 and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell. (questioned)
For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths.
19 All those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of life.
None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life.
20 So may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the just.
That thou dost go in the way of the good, And the paths of the righteous dost keep.
21 For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it.
For the upright do inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it,
22 Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.
And the wicked from the earth are cut off, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!
