Proverbs 2
1 MY SON, if you will receive my words and treasure up my commandments within you,2 Making your ear attentive to skillful and godly Wisdom and inclining and directing your heart and mind to understanding [applying all your powers to the quest for it];3 Yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,4 If you seek [Wisdom] as for silver and search for skillful and godly Wisdom as for hidden treasures,5 Then you will understand the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of [our omniscient] God. 6 For the Lord gives skillful and godly Wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.7 He hides away sound and godly Wisdom and stores it for the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with Him); He is a shield to those who walk uprightly and in integrity,8 That He may guard the paths of justice; yes, He preserves the way of His saints. 9 Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and fair dealing [in every area and relation]; yes, you will understand every good path.10 For skillful and godly Wisdom shall enter into your heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant to you.11 Discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you,12 To deliver you from the way of evil and the evil men, from men who speak perverse things and are liars,13 Men 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 evil,15 Who are crooked in their ways, wayward and devious in their paths.16 [Discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you] to deliver you from the alien woman, from the outsider with her flattering words, 17 Who forsakes the husband and guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.18 For her house sinks down to death and her paths to the spirits [of the dead].19 None who go to her return again, neither do they attain or regain the paths of life.20 So may you walk in the way of good men, and keep to the paths of the [consistently] righteous (the upright, in right standing with God).21 For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the men of integrity, blameless and complete [in God’s sight], shall remain in it;22 But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.
Proverbs 2
Make Insight Your Priority
1-5 Good friend, take to heart what I'm telling you; collect my counsels and guard them with your life. Tune your ears to the world of Wisdom; set your heart on a life of Understanding. That's right—if you make Insight your priority, and won't take no for an answer, Searching for it like a prospector panning for gold, like an adventurer on a treasure hunt, Believe me, before you know it Fear-of-God will be yours; you'll have come upon the Knowledge of God.
6-8 And here's why: God gives out Wisdom free, is plainspoken in Knowledge and Understanding. He's a rich mine of Common Sense for those who live well, a personal bodyguard to the candid and sincere. He keeps his eye on all who live honestly, and pays special attention to his loyally committed ones.
9-15 So now you can pick out what's true and fair, find all the good trails! Lady Wisdom will be your close friend, and Brother Knowledge your pleasant companion. Good Sense will scout ahead for danger, Insight will keep an eye out for you. They'll keep you from making wrong turns, or following the bad directions Of those who are lost themselves and can't tell a trail from a tumbleweed, These losers who make a game of evil and throw parties to celebrate perversity, Traveling paths that go nowhere, wandering in a maze of detours and dead ends.
16-19 Wise friends will rescue you from the Temptress— that smooth-talking Seductress Who's faithless to the husband she married years ago, never gave a second thought to her promises before God. Her whole way of life is doomed; every step she takes brings her closer to hell. No one who joins her company ever comes back, ever sets foot on the path to real living.
20-22 So—join the company of good men and women, keep your feet on the tried-and-true paths. It's the men who walk straight who will settle this land, the women with integrity who will last here. The corrupt will lose their lives; the dishonest will be gone for good.