Chapter 2
Wisdom Will Enter into Your Heart
1 My son, if you take my words to heart
and look upon my instructions as a treasure,
2 attuning your ear to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding,
3 if you cry out for the gift of discernment
and plead for understanding,
4 if you seek for it as for silver
and search for it as for buried treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and discover the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord himself is the one who bestows wisdom;
from his mouth come forth knowledge and understanding.
7 He reserves his wisdom for the upright
and is a shield to those who lead blameless lives,
8 for he guards the paths of justice
and keeps watch over the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand equity and justice
as well as righteousness—every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart
and knowledge will delight your soul.
11 Prudence will protect you,
and understanding will watch over you.
12 Thus, you will be preserved from the ways of evil
and from those whose speech is perverse,
13 who stray far from the straight paths
to walk along roads of darkness,
14 who take pleasure in doing evil
and delight in leading perverse lives,
15 whose paths are crooked
and whose ways are devious.
16 You will be saved from the wife of another,
from the adulteress with her seductive words,
17 who forsakes the partner of her youth
and forgets her sacred covenant with God.
18 For her house leads downward to death
and her paths descend to the shades.
19 Anyone who goes to her never returns
or regains the paths of life.
20 Take care, then, that you follow the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will live in the land,
and those who are innocent will remain there.
22 However, the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and those who are faithless will be uprooted from it.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 2:1
- Proverbs 2:3
- Proverbs 2:5
- Proverbs 2:10
- Proverbs 2:12
- Proverbs 2:13
- Proverbs 2:16
- Proverbs 2:18
- Proverbs 2:21
