Proverbs 2

The Value of Wisdom

1  a My son, b 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 c for understanding,
 4 if you seek it like d silver
and search for it as for e hidden treasures,
 5 then f you will understand the fear of the  Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
 6 For g the  Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
 7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is h a shield to those who i walk in integrity,
 8 guarding the paths of justice
and j watching over the way of his k saints.
 9  l Then you will understand m 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  n discretion will o 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 p walk in the ways of darkness,
 14 who q rejoice in doing evil
and r delight in the perverseness of evil,
 15 men whose s paths are crooked,
t and who are u devious in their ways.
 16  So v you will be delivered from the forbidden ▼
▼ Hebrew strange
 woman,
from x the adulteress ▼
▼ Hebrew foreign woman
 with z her smooth words,
 17 who forsakes aa the companion of her youth
and forgets ab the covenant of her God;
 18  ac for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed; ▼
▼ Hebrew  to the Rephaim

 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 ae will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
 22 but the wicked will be af cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be ag rooted out of it.
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