Proverbs 2

1 My son, if you will receive my words, and hide my commandments with you;

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

2 So that you incline your ear unto 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 Yea, if you cry after knowledge, 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 hid treasures;

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

5 Then shall you 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 righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

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

8 He keeps the paths of judgment, and perserves the way of his saints.

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

9 Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

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

10 When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul;

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

11 Discretion shall preserve you, understanding shall keep you:

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

12 To deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaks perverse things;

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

13 Who leave 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 the wicked;

who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;

15 Whose ways are crooked, and they perverse in their paths:

whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;

16 To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the stranger which 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 Which forsakes the guide 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 inclines unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

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

19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of 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 shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

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

22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

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