Proverbs 2

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 My child, if you take my words to heart, if you set store by my commandments,	1 My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you,
2 tuning your ear to wisdom, tuning 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 your plea is for clear perception, if you cry out for understanding,	3 For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence,
4 if you look for it as though for silver, search for it as though for buried treasure,	4 if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure,
5 then you wil understand what the fear of Yahweh is, and discover the knowledge of God.	5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God.
6 For Yahweh himself is giver of wisdom, from his mouth issue knowledge and understanding.	6 For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge.
7 He reserves his advice for the honest, a shield to those whose ways are sound;	7 He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity:
8 he stands guard over the paths of equity, he keeps watch over the way of those faithful to him.	8 serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity.
9 Then you wil understand uprightness, equity and fair dealing, the paths that lead to happiness.	9 Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path.
10 When wisdom comes into your heart and knowledge fil s your soul with delight,	10 If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul,
11 then prudence wil be there to watch over you, and understanding wil be your guardian	11 then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you,
12 to keep you from the way that is evil, from those whose speech is deceitful,	12 so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities,
13 from those who leave the paths of honesty to walk the roads of darkness:	13 from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways,
14 those who find their joy in doing wrong, and their delight in deceitfulness,	14 who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things.
15 whose tracks are twisted, and the paths that they tread crooked.	15 Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous.
16 To keep you, too, from the woman who belongs to another, from the stranger, with her wheedlingwords;	16 So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech,
17 she has left the partner of her younger days, she has forgotten the covenant of her God;	17 and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth,
18 her house is tilting towards Death, down to the Shades go her paths.	18 and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell.
19 Of those who go to her not one returns, they never regain 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 wil tread the way of good people, persisting in the paths of the upright.	20 So may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the just.
21 For the land will be for the honest to live in, the innocent will have it for their home;	21 For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it.
22 while the wicked wil be cut off from the land, and the faithless 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.