THE BOOK OF PROVERBS

 

Proverbs 2

1 ¶ My son, if you accept what I say, and keep my commandments in your heart;

2 So that you listen to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

3 Yes, if you will ask for insight, and cry out for understanding;

4 If you seek her like silver, and search for her as for hidden treasure;

5 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 comes knowledge and understanding.

7 He has reserved sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a shield to those who walk uprightly.

8 He guards the paths of justice, and watches over the ways of those he loves.

9 Then you will understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

10 ¶ When wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul;

11 Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will protect you:

12 To save you from the way of the evil man, from the man who says perverse things;

13 Those who leave the paths of righteousness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

14 Who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked;

15 Their paths are crooked, and their ways are devious:

16 Wisdom will deliver you from the strange woman, that is from the stranger with her flattering words;

17 Who forsakes the husband of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.

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

19 None who go in to her come back, nor do they reach the paths of life.

20 I want you to walk in the way of good men, and keep to the paths of the righteous.

21 For the righteous will live in the land, and the innocent will remain in it.

22 But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and transgressors will be rooted out of it.