Proverbs 2

CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN	NEW JERUSALEM
1 My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you,	1 My child, if you take my words to heart, if you set store by my commandments,
2 so that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudence.	2 tuning your ear to wisdom, tuning your heart to understanding,
3 For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence,	3 yes, if your plea is for clear perception, if you cry out for understanding,
4 if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure,	4 if you look for it as though for silver, search for it as though for buried treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God.	5 then you wil understand what the fear of Yahweh is, and discover the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge.	6 For Yahweh himself is giver of wisdom, from his mouth issue knowledge and understanding.
7 He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity:	7 He reserves his advice for the honest, a shield to those whose ways are sound;
8 serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity.	8 he stands guard over the paths of equity, he keeps watch over the way of those faithful to him.
9 Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path.	9 Then you wil understand uprightness, equity and fair dealing, the paths that lead to happiness.
10 If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul,	10 When wisdom comes into your heart and knowledge fil s your soul with delight,
11 then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you,	11 then prudence wil be there to watch over you, and understanding wil be your guardian
12 so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities,	12 to keep you from the way that is evil, from those whose speech is deceitful,
13 from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways,	13 from those who leave the paths of honesty to walk the roads of darkness:
14 who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things.	14 those who find their joy in doing wrong, and their delight in deceitfulness,
15 Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous.	15 whose tracks are twisted, and the paths that they tread crooked.
16 So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech,	16 To keep you, too, from the woman who belongs to another, from the stranger, with her wheedlingwords;
17 and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth,	17 she has left the partner of her younger days, she has forgotten 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 her house is tilting towards Death, down to the Shades go her paths.
19 All those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of life.	19 Of those who go to her not one returns, they never regain 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 wil tread the way of good people, persisting in the paths of the upright.
21 For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it.	21 For the land will be for the honest to live in, the innocent will have it for their home;
22 Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.	22 while the wicked wil be cut off from the land, and the faithless rooted out of it.