Proverbs 2

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

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee;

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

So that thou make thine ear attend unto wisdom, and thy heart incline to discernment;

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

Yea, if thou call for understanding, and lift up thy voice for discernment;

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

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

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

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

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

For the LORD giveth wisdom, out of His mouth cometh knowledge and discernment;

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

He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright, He is a shield to them that walk in integrity;

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

That He may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of His godly ones.

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

Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, and equity, yea, every good path.

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

For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;

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

Discretion shall watch over thee, discernment shall guard thee;

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

To deliver thee from the way of evil, from the men that speak froward things;

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

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

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

Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of evil;

15 whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;

Who are crooked in their ways, and perverse in their paths;

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

To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the alien woman that maketh smooth her words;

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

That forsaketh the lord of her youth, and forgetteth 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 sinketh down unto death, and her paths unto the shades;

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 that go unto her return, neither do they attain unto the paths of life;

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

That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, 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 shall dwell in the land, and the whole-hearted shall remain in it.

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

But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the faithless shall be plucked up out of it.