Proverbs 2

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