Proverbs 2

CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN	KING JAMES BIBLE
1 My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you,	1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
2 so that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudence.	2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
3 For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence,	3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure,	4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God.	5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge.	6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7 He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity:	7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8 serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity.	8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
9 Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path.	9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10 If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul,	10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11 then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you,	11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
12 so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities,	12 To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
13 from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways,	13 Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
14 who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things.	14 Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;
15 Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous.	15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:
16 So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech,	16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
17 and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth,	17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
18 and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell.	18 For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
19 All those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of life.	19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
20 So may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the just.	20 That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it.	21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
22 Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.	22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.