Chapter 2
1 My son , if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you ,
2 so as to turn your ear to wisdom , and apply your heart to understanding ;
3 yes , if you call out for discernment , and lift up your voice for understanding ;
4 if you seek her as silver , and search for her as for hidden treasures ;
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD , and find the knowledge of God . " (Elohim).
6 For the LORD gives wisdom . Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding .
7 He lays up sound wisdom for the upright . He is a shield to those who walk in integrity ,
8 that he may guard the paths of justice , and preserve the way of his saints .
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice , equity and every good path .
10 For wisdom will enter into your heart . Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul .
11 Discretion will watch over you . Understanding will keep you ,
12 to deliver you from the way of evil , from the men who speak perverse things ,
13 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 , and wayward in their paths ,
16 to deliver you from the strange woman , even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,
17 who forsakes the friend of her youth , and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 for her house leads down to death , her paths to the departed spirits .
19 None who go to her return again , neither do they attain to the paths of life .
20 Therefore walk in the way of good men , and keep the paths of the righteous .
21 For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it .
22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it .