Proverbs 2

¹ My son, you take my words to heart, if you set store by my commandments,

² tuning your ear to wisdom, and applying your heart to truth:

³ yes, if your plea is for clear perception, if you cry out for discernment,

⁴ if you look for it as if it were silver, and search for it as for buried treasure,

⁵ you will then understand what the fear of Yahweh is, and discover the knowledge of God.

⁶ For Yahweh himself is giver of wisdom, from his mouth issue knowledge and discernment.

⁷ He keeps his help for honest men, he is the shield of those whose ways are honourable;

⁸ he stands guard over the paths of justice, he keeps watch on the way of his devoted ones.

⁹ Then you will understand what virtue is, justice, and fair dealing, all paths that lead to happiness.

¹⁰ When wisdom comes into your heart and knowledge is a delight to you,

¹¹ then prudence will be there to watch over you, and discernment be your guardian

¹² to keep you from the way that is evil, from the man whose speech is deceitful,

¹³ from those who leave the paths of honesty to walk the roads of darkness:

¹⁴ men who find their joy in doing wrong, and their delight in deceitfulness,

¹⁵ whose tracks are twisted, and the paths that they tread crooked.

¹⁶ Keeping you also from the alien woman, from the stranger, with her wheedling words;

¹⁷ she has left the partner of her younger days, she has forgotten the covenant of God;

¹⁸ towards death her house is declining, down to the Shades her paths go.

¹⁹ Of those who go to her not one returns, they never regain the paths of life.

²⁰ So you will pursue the way of good men, persisting in the paths of the virtuous.

²¹ For the land will be for honest men to live in the innocent will have it for their home;

²² while the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the faithless rooted out of it.