Proverbs 2

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

My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind;

2 That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence:

So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge;

3 For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:

Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge;

4 If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:

If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth;

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

Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours.

6 Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.

For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason:

7 He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity.

He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil;

8 Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.

He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him.

9 Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.

Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way.

10 If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:

For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;

11 Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,

Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you;

12 That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:

Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false;

13 Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:

Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads;

14 Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things:

Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;

15 Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.

Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil:

16 That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words:

To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue;

17 And forsaketh the guide of her youth,

Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:

18 And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell. (questioned)

For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:

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

Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:

20 That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.

So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright.

21 For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it.

For the upright will be living in the land, and the good will have it for their heritage.

22 But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.

But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted.