Proverbs 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

4 if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20 Therefore walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

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

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

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

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

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