Proverbs 2
1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
My son, if you accept what I say and value my instructions,
2 make your ears pay attention to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding.
if you pay attention to wisdom and really try to understand;
3 If you cry out for understanding and raise your voice for it,
if you cry out for insight and call loudly for help in understanding;
4 if you seek it like you would seek silver and search for understanding as you would seek hidden treasures,
if you look for it as if it were silver and search for it as if it were hidden treasure;
5 then you will understand the fear of Yahweh and you will find the knowledge of God.
then you will understand how to relate to the Lord and discover the truth about God.
6 For Yahweh gives wisdom, from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
The Lord is the source of wisdom; what he says provides knowledge that makes sense.
7 He stores up sound wisdom for those who please him, he is a shield for those who walk in integrity,
He gives good judgment to those who live right; he defends those who have good sense.
8 he guards the paths of justice and he will preserve the way of those who are faithful to him.
He supports those who act fairly and protects those who trust in him.
9 Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and equity, and every good path.
Then you will be able to recognize what is right and just and fair, in fact all that is good in the way you should live.
10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
For wisdom will fill your mind, and knowledge will make you happy.
11 Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you.
Good decisions will keep you on track; thinking logically will keep you safe.
12 They will rescue you from the way of evil, from those who speak perverse things,
Doing this will save you from the ways of evil, from men who tell twisted lies,
13 who abandon the right paths and walk in the ways of darkness.
who turn away from following what is right to walk down paths of darkness.
14 They rejoice when they do evil and delight in the perversities of evil.
They happily do wrong; they love how twisted evil is.
15 They follow crooked paths, and using deception they hide their tracks.
They live crooked lives doing deceitful things.
16 Wisdom and discretion will save you from an adulterous woman, from an immoral woman and her flattering words.
Doing this will also save you from a woman who acts immorally, from a woman who like a prostitute tries to seduce you with flattering words.
17 She forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
Such a woman has left her husband she married when she was young, forgetting the promises she made before God.
18 For her house leads down to death and her tracks will lead you to those in the grave.
What happens in her house leads to death; following her way leads to the grave.
19 All who go in to her will not return again and they will not find the paths of life.
No one who goes to her comes back; they don't ever find the way back to life again.
20 So you will walk in the way of good people and follow the paths of righteous people.
So you should follow the way of the good, and make sure you stay on the paths of those who do right.
21 For those doing right will make a home in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it.
For only people who live right will live in the land; only honest people will remain there.
22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the faithless will be cut off from it.
But the wicked will be thrown out of the land; those who are untrustworthy will be pulled out by the roots.
