Proverbs 2

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands,	1 My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you,
2 Turning your ear to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding;	2 so that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudence.
3 Yes, if you call to intelligence, and to understanding raise your voice;	3 For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence,
4 If you seek her like silver, and like hidden treasures search her out:	4 if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure,
5 Then will you understand the fear of the LORD; the knowledge of God you will find;	5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;	6 For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge.
7 He has counsel in store for the upright, he is the shield of those who walk honestly,	7 He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity:
8 Guarding the paths of justice, protecting the way of his pious ones.	8 serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity.
9 Then you will understand rectitude and justice, honesty, every good path;	9 Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart, knowledge will please your soul,	10 If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul,
11 Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you;	11 then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you,
12 Saving you from the way of evil men, from men of perverse speech,	12 so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities,
13 Who leave the straight paths to walk in the way of darkness,	13 from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways,
14 Who delight in doing evil, rejoice in perversity;	14 who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things.
15 Whose ways are crooked, and devious their paths;	15 Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous.
16 Saving you from the wife of another, from the adulteress with her smooth words,	16 So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech,
17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the pact with her God;	17 and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth,
18 For her path sinks down to death, and her footsteps lead to the shades;	18 and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell.
19 None who enter thereon come back again, or gain the paths of life.	19 All those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of life.
20 Thus you may walk in the way of good men, and keep to the paths of the just.	20 So may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the just.
21 For the upright will dwell in the land, the honest will remain in it;	21 For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it.
22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land, the faithless will be rooted out of it.	22 Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.