Chapter Text
2:1 My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you,
2:2 To make your ear pay attention to wisdom, Incline your heart to discernment;
2:3 For if you call out for understanding, Give your voice for discernment;
2:4 If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures;
2:5 Then you will understand the fear of Yahweh And find the knowledge of God.
2:6 For Yahweh gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and discernment.
2:7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright, A shield to those who walk in integrity,
2:8 To guard the paths of justice, And He keeps the way of His holy ones.
2:9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice And equity—every good track.
2:10 For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
2:11 Discretion will keep you, Discernment will guard you,
2:12 To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things;
2:13 From those who forsake the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness;
2:14 Who are glad to do evil And they rejoice in the perversity of evil;
2:15 Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their tracks;
2:16 To deliver you from the strange woman, From the foreign woman who flatters with her words;
2:17 Who forsakes the close companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God;
2:18 For her house sinks down to death And her tracks descend to the dead;
2:19 All who go to her will not return, And they will not reach the paths of life.
2:20 So that you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous.
2:21 For the upright will dwell in the land And the blameless will remain in it;
2:22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land And the treacherous will be torn away from it.