Proverbs 2

¹My son, if thou dost accept my sayings, And my commands dost lay up with thee, ²To cause thine ear to attend to wisdom, Thou inclinest thy heart to understanding, ³For, if for intelligence thou callest, For understanding givest forth thy voice, ⁴If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her, ⁵Then understandest thou fear of Jehovah, And knowledge of God thou findest. ⁶For Jehovah giveth wisdom, From His mouth knowledge and understanding. ⁷Even to lay up for the upright substance, A shield for those walking uprightly. ⁸To keep the paths of judgment, And the way of His saints He preserveth. ⁹Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness—every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant, ¹¹Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee, ¹²To deliver thee from an evil way, From any speaking froward things, ¹³Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness, ¹⁴Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked, ¹⁵Whose paths are crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways. ¹⁶To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings, ¹⁷Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten. ¹⁸For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths. ¹⁹None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life. ²⁰That thou dost go in the way of the good, And the paths of the righteous dost keep. ²¹For the upright do inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it, ²²And the wicked from the earth are cut off, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!

Chapter 3