Proverbs 2
1 My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,
My son, if you accept what I say and value my instructions,
2 so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
if you pay attention to wisdom and really try to understand;
3 yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;
if you cry out for insight and call loudly for help in understanding;
4 if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for 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 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. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
The Lord is the source of wisdom; what he says provides knowledge that makes sense.
7 He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
He gives good judgment to those who live right; he defends those who have good sense.
8 that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.
He supports those who act fairly and protects those who trust in him.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, 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 enter into your heart. 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 keep you,
Good decisions will keep you on track; thinking logically will keep you safe.
12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,
Doing this will save you from the ways of evil, from men who tell twisted lies,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,
who turn away from following what is right to walk down paths of darkness.
14 who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil,
They happily do wrong; they love how twisted evil is.
15 who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,
They live crooked lives doing deceitful things.
16 to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her 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 who forsakes the friend 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, her paths to the departed spirits.
What happens in her house leads to death; following her way leads to the grave.
19 None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.
No one who goes to her comes back; they don't ever find the way back to life again.
20 Therefore walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
So you should follow the way of the good, and make sure you stay on the paths of those who do right.
21 For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect 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. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
But the wicked will be thrown out of the land; those who are untrustworthy will be pulled out by the roots.
