1My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,2turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding –3indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,4and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,5then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.6For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.7He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose way of life is blameless,8for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.9Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path.10For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.11Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.12Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse,13who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways,14who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,15whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.16Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words,17who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.[1]18Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.19None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.20Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.21For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;22but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn 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)