2 My son, if thou wilt receive my words,
And lay up my commandments with thee;
2 So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom,
And apply thy heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou cry after discernment,
And lift up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hid treasures:
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah,
And find the knowledge of God.
6 For Jehovah giveth wisdom;
Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding:
7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright;
[a]He is a shield to them that walk in integrity;
8 [b]That he may guard the paths of justice,
[c]And preserve the way of his saints.
9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice,
And equity, yea, every good path.
10 For wisdom shall enter into thy heart,
And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;
11 Discretion shall watch over thee;
Understanding shall keep thee:
12 To deliver thee from the way of [d]evil,
From the men that speak perverse things;
13 Who forsake the paths of uprightness,
To walk in the ways of darkness;
14 Who rejoice to do evil,
And delight in the perverseness of [e]evil;
15 Who are crooked in their ways,
And wayward in their paths:
16 To deliver thee from the strange woman,
Even from the foreigner that [f]flattereth with her words;
17 That forsaketh the [g]friend of her youth,
And forgetteth the covenant of her God:
18 For [h]her house inclineth unto death,
And her paths unto [i]the dead;
19 None that go unto her return again,
Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:
20 That thou mayest walk in the way of good men,
And keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright shall dwell in the [j]land,
And the perfect shall remain in it.
22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the land,
[k]And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 2:7 Or, And a shield for etc.
- Proverbs 2:8 Or, That they may keep
- Proverbs 2:8 Or, Yea, he preserveth
- Proverbs 2:12 Or, the evil man
- Proverbs 2:14 Or, the evil man
- Proverbs 2:16 Hebrew maketh smooth her words.
- Proverbs 2:17 Or, guide
- Proverbs 2:18 Or, she sinketh down unto death, which is her house
- Proverbs 2:18 Or, the shades. Hebrew Rephaim.
- Proverbs 2:21 Or, earth
- Proverbs 2:22 Or, earth