Proverbs 2

¹My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind;

²So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge;

³Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge;

⁴If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth;

⁵Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours.

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason:

⁷He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil;

⁸He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him.

⁹Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way.

¹⁰For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;

¹¹Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you;

¹²Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false;

¹³Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads;

¹⁴Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;

¹⁵Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil:

¹⁶To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue;

¹⁷Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:

¹⁸For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:

¹⁹Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:

²⁰So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright.

²¹For the upright will be living in the land, and the good will have it for their heritage.

²²But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted.

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

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

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

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

⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁷who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God:

¹⁸for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:

²⁰that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

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