Proverbs 2

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

My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you,

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

so that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudence.

3 For if you call for intelligence, [And] give forth your voice for intelligence,

For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence,

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

if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure,

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

then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God.

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

For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge.

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

He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity:

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

serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity.

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

Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path.

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

If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul,

11 Thoughtfulness watches over you, Understanding keeps you,

then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you,

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

so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities,

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

from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways,

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

who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things.

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

Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous.

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

So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech,

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

and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth,

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

and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell. (questioned)

19 None going in to her return, Nor do they reach the paths of life.

All those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of life.

20 That you go in the way of the good, And keep the paths of the righteous.

So may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the just.

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

For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it.

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

Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.