Proverbs 2
The full text of Proverbs 2 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
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.
Translation notes (6)
- Proverbs 2:16a Hebrew ishshah zarah, literally 'strange woman', is paralleled by nokhriyyah, 'foreigner'. Interpreters debate whether these terms mark the woman as ethnically foreign or as one outside the bounds of a man's own marriage covenant; the following verse, with its forsaken companion and covenant, favors the latter, hence the rendering 'forbidden woman'.
- Proverbs 2:17a Alluf, 'companion', denotes an intimate confidant, here the husband of her youth. The 'covenant of her God' is most naturally the marriage vow, understood as sworn before God and thus binding on both parties; compare Malachi 2:14, where God is witness to the covenant with 'the wife of your youth'. Some interpreters instead take it as Israel's covenant at Sinai, which prohibited adultery.
- Proverbs 2:18a Rephaim (רְפָאִים), 'shades', denotes the weakened spirits of the dead who inhabit Sheol, as in Isaiah 14:9 and Psalm 88:10. The same word elsewhere names an ancient race of giants (Deuteronomy 2:11), but in poetic contexts of death it refers to the departed. The adulteress's paths thus lead not merely to physical ruin but to the realm of the dead.
- Proverbs 2:19a The Hebrew phrase orchot chayyim, 'paths of life', recurs in Proverbs (compare 5:6; 15:24) and echoes the covenantal choice between life and death set before Israel in Deuteronomy 30:19. The finality of the wording—none who enter return—casts the adulteress's house as a point of no escape, the counterpart to the way of life.
- Proverbs 2:21a The Hebrew erets ('land') carries the language of the covenant promise, echoing Deuteronomy, where dwelling in the land is conditioned on obedience (Deuteronomy 4:1; 30:20). Psalm 37:29 makes the same claim in nearly identical terms. The proverb thus frames moral integrity within Israel's covenant hope rather than as generic prudence.
- Proverbs 2:22a The verb karat, 'to cut off', echoes the covenant sanction formula in which offenders are 'cut off' from the people (Genesis 17:14; Leviticus 20:17), while nasach, 'to tear away', appears in the curses of Deuteronomy 28:63. The proverb thus frames wisdom's promise of the land in covenantal terms.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Hebrew and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of Proverbs, is free to read here on the web.
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