Proverbs - Chapter 2 - A Conservative Version
- My son, if thou will receive my words, and lay up my commandments with thee,
- so as to incline thine ear to wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding,
- yea, if thou cry after discernment, and lift up thy voice for understanding,
- if thou seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures,
- then thou shall understand the fear of LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
- For LORD gives wisdom. Out of his mouth [is] knowledge and understanding.
- He lays up sound wisdom for the upright, a shield to those who walk in integrity,
- that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his sanctified.
- Then thou shall understand righteousness and justice and equity, [yea], every good path.
- For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant to thy soul,
- discretion shall watch over thee, understanding shall keep thee,
- to deliver thee from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,
- who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,
- who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil,
- who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,
- to deliver thee from the interloping woman, even from the stranger who flatters with her words,
- who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God
- (for her house inclines to death, and her paths to the dead;
- none who go to her return again, nor do they attain to the paths of life),
- that thou may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
- For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.
- But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.