Proverbs 2

¹ My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commands within you,

² making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;

³ yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding;

⁴ if you seek her like silver
and search for her as for hidden treasures—

⁵ then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.

⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷ He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

⁸ guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his faithful ones.

⁹ Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and uprightness—every good path.

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹ Discretion will guard you,
understanding will watch over you,

¹² to deliver you from the way of evil,
from the man who speaks perversely,

¹³ from those who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in ways of darkness,

¹⁴ who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perversity of wickedness,

¹⁵ whose paths are crooked
and who are devious in their ways;

¹⁶ to deliver you from the forbidden woman,
from the stranger whose words are smooth,

¹⁷ who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God,

¹⁸ for her house sinks down to death
and her paths to the shades.

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

²⁰ So you will walk in the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.

²¹ For the upright will inhabit the land,
and the blameless will remain in it,

²² but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be uprooted from it.