Proverbs 2

The Benefits of Wisdom

2My child, if you will receive^a my sayings,

and hide my commands with you,

²in order to incline your ear toward wisdom,

then you shall apply your heart to understanding.

³For if you cry out for understanding,^b

if you lift^c your voice for insight,

⁴if you seek her like silver

and search her out like treasure,^d

⁵then you will understand the fear of Yahweh,

and the knowledge of God you will find.

⁶For Yahweh will give wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷For the upright, he stores^e sound judgment, a shield for those who walk uprightly,

⁸in order to guard paths of justice

and keep^f the way of his faithful ones.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice

and uprightness—every good course—

¹⁰for wisdom will enter your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul.^g

¹¹Discretion will watch over you;

understanding will protect you,

¹²in order to deliver you from the way of evil,^h

from a man who speaks devious things—

¹³those who forsake the paths of uprightness

to walk in ways of darkness,

¹⁴those who are happy to do evil,

for they delight in the deviousness of evil,

¹⁵who are crooked in their ways,ⁱ

and devious in their paths;

¹⁶in order to deliver you from a strange woman,

from a foreign woman who flatters^j with her sayings,

¹⁷she who forsakes the partner of her youth

and has forgotten the covenant of her God,

¹⁸for her house sinks to death,

and to the dead^k are her paths.

¹⁹Of all who go to her, none shall return,

nor do they reach paths of life.

²⁰So that you will walk on the road of those who are good,

and the paths of those who are righteous you shall keep.

²¹For those who are upright will dwell in the land,^l

and those who are blameless^m will remain in it.

²²And those who are wicked will be cut off from the land,

and those who are treacherous will be uprooted from it.