1My son, accept my words. Store up my commands inside you.2Let your ears listen to wisdom. Apply your heart to understanding.3Call out for the ability to be wise. Cry out for understanding.4Look for it as you would look for silver. Search for it as you would search for hidden treasure.5Then you will understand how to have respect for the LORD. You will find out how to know God.6The LORD gives wisdom. Knowledge and understanding come from his mouth.7He stores up success for honest people. He is like a shield to those who live without blame.8He guards the path of those who are honest. He watches over the way of his faithful ones.9You will understand what is right and honest and fair. You will understand the right way to live.10Your heart will become wise. Your mind will delight in knowledge.11Good sense will keep you safe. Understanding will guard you.12Wisdom will save you from the ways of evil men. It will save you from men who twist their words.13Men like that have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways.14They take delight in doing what is wrong. They take joy in twisting everything around.15Their paths are crooked. Their ways are not straight.16Wisdom will save you from a woman who commits adultery. It will save you from a sinful woman and her tempting words.17She has left the man she married when she was young. She has broken the promise she made in front of God.18Surely her house leads down to death. Her paths lead to the spirits of the dead.19No one who goes to her comes back or reaches the paths of life.20You will walk in the ways of good people. You will follow the paths of those who do right.21Honest people will live in the land. Those who are without blame will remain in it.22But sinners will be cut off from the land. Those who aren’t faithful will be torn away from it.
Proverbs 2
English Standard Version
The Value of Wisdom
1My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, (Pr 1:8; Pr 4:1; Pr 4:10; Pr 4:20; Pr 7:1)2making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;3yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, (Pr 4:1; Pr 4:5; Pr 4:7)4if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, (Job 3:21; Pr 3:14; Mt 13:44)5then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. (Ps 25:14; Joh 7:17; Joh 14:21)6For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; (Job 32:8)7he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, (Ps 3:3; Ps 84:11; Pr 30:5)8guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. (1Sa 2:9; Ps 30:4; Ps 66:9; Ps 97:10)9Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; (Pr 1:3; Pr 2:5)10for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;11discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, (Pr 1:4; Pr 6:22)12delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,13who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, (Ps 82:5; Joh 3:19)14who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, (Ps 50:18; Pr 10:23; Jer 11:15; Ro 1:32)15men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways. (Ps 125:5; Pr 3:32; Pr 14:2; Pr 21:8)16So you will be delivered from the forbidden[1] woman, from the adulteress[2] with her smooth words, (Ps 5:9; Pr 6:24; Pr 7:5; Pr 23:27)17who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; (Ps 55:13; Jer 3:4; Mal 2:14)18for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;[3] (Pr 7:27)19none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.20So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.21For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, (Pr 10:30)22but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. (De 28:63; Ps 37:38; Ps 52:5; Pr 15:25)