Proverbs 2

The Value of Wisdom

²My child, if you accept my words

and treasure up my commandments within you,^*

²making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding,

³if you indeed cry out for insight

and raise your voice for understanding,

⁴if you seek it like silver

and search for it as for hidden treasures—^*

⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord

and find the knowledge of God.^*

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;^*

⁷he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,^*

⁸guarding the paths of justice

and preserving the way of his faithful ones.^*

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice

and equity, every good path,^*

¹⁰for wisdom will come into your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

¹¹prudence will watch over you,

and understanding will guard you.

¹²It will save you from the way of evil,

from those who speak perversely,

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness

to walk in the ways of darkness,^*

¹⁴who rejoice in doing evil

and delight in the perverseness of evil,^*

¹⁵those whose paths are crooked

and who are devious in their ways.^*

¹⁶You will be saved from the loose woman,^b

from the adulteress^c with her smooth words,^*

¹⁷who forsakes the partner of her youth

and forgets her sacred covenant,

¹⁸for her way^d leads down to death

and her paths to the shades;^*

¹⁹those who go to her never come back,

nor do they regain the paths of life.

²⁰Therefore walk in the way of the good,

and keep to the paths of the just.

²¹For the upright will abide in the land,

and the innocent will remain in it,^*

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the earth,

and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.^*