Proverbs 2

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

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,

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

make your ears pay attention to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding.

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

If you cry out for understanding and raise your voice for it,

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

if you seek it like you would seek silver and search for understanding as you would seek hidden treasures,

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

then you will understand the fear of Yahweh and you will find the knowledge of God.

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

For Yahweh gives wisdom, from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

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

He stores up sound wisdom for those who please him, he is a shield for those who walk in integrity,

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

he guards the paths of justice and he will preserve the way of those who are faithful to him.

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

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

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 pleasant to your soul.

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

Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you.

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

They will rescue you from the way of evil, from those who speak perverse things,

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

who abandon the right paths and walk in the ways of darkness.

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

They rejoice when they do evil and delight in the perversities of evil.

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

They follow crooked paths, and using deception they hide their tracks.

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

Wisdom and discretion will save you from an adulterous woman, from an immoral woman and her flattering words.

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

She forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

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

For her house leads down to death and her tracks will lead you to those in the grave.

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

All who go in to her will not return again and they will not find the paths of life.

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

So you will walk in the way of good people and follow the paths of righteous people.

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

For those doing right will make a home in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it.

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

But the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the faithless will be cut off from it.