Proverbs 2:1-17 ▼

1 My son, if you accept my words, and treasure my instructions —

2 making your ear attentive to wisdom, and turning your heart to understanding—

3 if, indeed, you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

4 if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,

5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and learn to know God.

6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright and is a shield to those who walk in integrity—

8 guarding the paths of the just and protecting the way of his faithful ones.

9 Then you will understand what is right, just, and upright—every good path.

10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

11 Discretion will protect you; understanding will watch over you,

12 delivering you from the way of evil, from men who speak perverse things,

13 and from those who abandon the right path to travel along the ways of darkness;

14 who delight in doing evil, and rejoice in the perverseness of evil;

15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways,

16 delivering you from the adulteress, from the immoral woman with her seductive words,

17 someone who abandoned the companion of her youth and forgot the covenant of her God.