Proverbs 2
1-5 My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
turning
your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to
understanding,
and if you
call out
for insight
and cry aloud
for understanding,
and if you
look for
it as for silver
and search for
it as for hidden
treasure,
then
you will understand
the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom,
and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He
holds victory in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 for he
guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then
you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.
10 For
wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11
Discretion will protect you,
and understanding will guard you.
12 Wisdom
will save you from the ways of wicked men,
from men whose words are perverse,
13 who
leave the straight paths
to walk in dark ways,
14 who
delight in doing wrong
and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
15 whose
paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways.
It will save you also from the adulteress,
from the wayward wife with her seductive words,
who has left the partner of her youth
and ignored the covenant she made before God.1
For her house leads down to death
and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
None who go to her return
or
attain the paths of life.
VV.
16-20
20 Thus you will walk in the ways of good men
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For
the upright will live in the land,
and the blameless will remain in it;
22 but
the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
Footnotes:
1verse 17 Or covenant of her God