Proverbs 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11 Thoughtfulness watches over you, Understanding keeps you,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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