Proverbs 2

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

² Turning your ear to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding;

³ Yes, if you call to intelligence, and to understanding raise your voice;

⁴ If you seek her like silver, and like hidden treasures search her out:

⁵ Then will you understand the fear of the LORD; the knowledge of God you will find;

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

⁷ He has counsel in store for the upright, he is the shield of those who walk honestly,

⁸ Guarding the paths of justice, protecting the way of his pious ones.

⁹ Then you will understand rectitude and justice, honesty, every good path;

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart, knowledge will please your soul,

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

¹² Saving you from the way of evil men, from men of perverse speech,

¹³ Who leave the straight paths to walk in the way of darkness,

¹⁴ Who delight in doing evil, rejoice in perversity;

¹⁵ Whose ways are crooked, and devious their paths;

¹⁶ Saving you from the wife of another, from the adulteress with her smooth words,

¹⁷ Who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the pact with her God;

¹⁸ For her path sinks down to death, and her footsteps lead to the shades;

¹⁹ None who enter thereon come back again, or gain the paths of life.

²⁰ Thus you may walk in the way of good men, and keep to the paths of the just.

²¹ For the upright will dwell in the land, the honest will remain in it;

²² But the wicked will be cut off from the land, the faithless will be rooted out of it.