Proverbs 2

The Value of Wisdom

1  My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2  making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3  yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4  if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5  then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
6  For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7  he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8  guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
9  Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10  for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11  discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
12  delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
13  who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
14  who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15  men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.

16  So you will be delivered from the forbiddent woman,
from the adulteresst with her smooth words,
17  who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
18  for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;t
19  none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.

20  So you will walk in the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21  For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
22  but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Proverbs 2

Wisdom and bad friends

1 My child, you must follow
and treasure my teachings
and my instructions.

2 Keep in tune with wisdom
and think what it means
to have common sense.

3 Beg as loud as you can
for good common sense.

4 Search for wisdom
as you would search for silver
or hidden treasure.

5 Then you will understand
what it means to respect
and to know the Lord God.

6 All wisdom comes from the Lord,
and so do common sense
and understanding.

7 God gives helpful advicet
to everyone who obeys him
and protects all those
who live as they should.

8 God sees that justice is done,
and he watches over everyone
who is faithful to him.

9 With wisdom you will learn
what is right
and honest and fair.

10 Wisdom will control your mind,
and you will be pleased
with knowledge.

11 Sound judgment and good sense
will watch over you.

12 Wisdom will protect you
from evil schemes
and from those liars

13 who turned from doing good
to live in the darkness.

14 Most of all they enjoy
being mean and deceitful.

15 They are dishonest themselves,
and all they do is crooked.

Wisdom and sexual purity

16 Wisdom will protect you
from the smooth talk
of a sinful woman,

17 who breaks her wedding vows
and leaves the man she married
when she was young.

18 The road to her house leads
down to the dark world
of the dead.

19 Visit her, and you will never
find the road to life again.

20 Follow the example
of good people
and live an honest life.

21 If you are honest and innocent,
you will keep your land;

22 if you do wrong
and can never be trusted,
you will be rooted out.