Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;

[My] son, if thou wilt receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with thee;

2 So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

thine ear shall hearken to wisdom; thou shalt also apply thine heart to understanding, and shalt apply it to the instruction of thy son.

3 Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

For it thou shalt call to wisdom, and utter thy voice for understanding;

4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:

and if thou shalt seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures;

5 then you will 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. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

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

7 He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;

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

8 that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his faithful ones.

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

9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment; and shalt direct all thy course aright.

10 For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

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

11 Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

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

12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things;

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

13 who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

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

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

who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;

15 who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths:

whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;

16 To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;

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

17 who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets 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 leads down to death, her paths to the dead.

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

19 None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to 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 may walk in the way of good men, 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 will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

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

22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be uprooted out of it.

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