Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you accept my sayings, And lay up my commands with you,

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

2 To cause your ear to attend to wisdom, You incline your heart to understanding,

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 call for intelligence, [And] give forth your voice for intelligence,

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

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

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

5 Then you understand the fear of YHWH, And you find the knowledge of God.

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

6 For YHWH gives wisdom, Knowledge and understanding from His mouth.

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

7 Even to lay up substance for the upright, A shield for those walking uprightly.

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

8 To keep the paths of judgment, And He preserves the way of His saints.

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

9 Then you understand righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness—every good path.

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

10 For wisdom comes into your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,

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

11 Thoughtfulness watches over you, Understanding keeps you,

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

12 To deliver you from an evil way, From any speaking contrary things,

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

13 Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness,

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

14 Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in [the] contrariness of the wicked,

who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;

15 Whose paths [are] crooked, Indeed, they are perverted in their ways.

whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;

16 To deliver you from the strange woman, From the stranger who has made her sayings smooth,

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 Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And has forgotten the covenant of her God.

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

18 For her house has inclined to death, And her paths to Rephaim.

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

19 None going in to her return, Nor do they reach 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 That you go in the way of the good, And keep the paths of the righteous.

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

21 For the upright inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it,

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

22 And the wicked are cut off from the earth, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!

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