Proverbs 2

The Value of Wisdom

¹My child, if you accept my words

and treasure up my commandments within you,

²making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding;

³if you indeed cry out for insight,

and raise your voice for understanding;

⁴if you seek it like silver,

and search for it as for hidden treasures—

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 stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,

⁸guarding the paths of justice

and preserving the way of his faithful ones.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice

and equity, every good path;

¹⁰for wisdom will come into your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

¹¹prudence will watch over you;

and understanding will guard you.

¹²It will save you from the way of evil,

from those who speak perversely,

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness

to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁴who rejoice in doing evil

and delight in the perverseness of evil;

¹⁵those whose paths are crooked,

and who are devious in their ways.

¹⁶You will be saved from the loose woman,[#2.16 Heb]

from the adulteress with her smooth words,

¹⁷who forsakes the partner of her youth

and forgets her sacred covenant;

¹⁸for her way leads down to death,[#2.18 Cn: Heb]

and her paths to the shades;

¹⁹those who go to her never come back,

nor do they regain the paths of life.

²⁰Therefore walk in the way of the good,

and keep to the paths of the just.

²¹For the upright will abide in the land,

and the innocent will remain in it;

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land,

and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.