Proverbs 2

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

[My] son, if you will receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with you;

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

your ear shall listen to wisdom; you shall also apply your heart to understanding, and shall apply it to the instruction of your son.

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

For it you shall call to wisdom, and utter your voice for understanding;

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

and if you shall seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures;

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

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

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

For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence [come] knowledge and understanding,

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

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

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

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

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

Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgement; and shall direct all your course aright.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alas [for those] who forsake right paths, to walk in ways of darkness;

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

who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;

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

whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;

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

to remove you far from the straight way, and to estrange you from a righteous purpose. [My] son, let not evil counsel overtake you,

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

[of her] who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God.

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

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

19 Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways 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 So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright.

For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths of righteousness easy.

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

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

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

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