Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you will receive my words, and hide my commandments with you;

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

2 So that you incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

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

3 Yea, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;

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

4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;

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

5 Then shall you understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

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

6 For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

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

7 He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

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

8 He keeps the paths of judgment, and perserves the way of his saints.

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

9 Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

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

10 When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul;

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

11 Discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you:

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

12 To deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaks perverse things;

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

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

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

14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of the wicked;

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

15 Whose ways are crooked, and they perverse in their paths:

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

16 To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flatters with her words;

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

17 Which forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.

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

18 For her house inclines unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

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

19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they 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 you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

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

21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain 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 cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

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