Proverbs 2

1✦My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

2✦So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

3✦Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

4✦If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

5✦Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

6✦For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

7✦He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

8✦He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

9✦Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

10✦When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

11✦Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

12✦To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;

13✦Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

14✦Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;

15✦Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:

16✦To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

17✦Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

18✦For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

19✦None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

20✦That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

21✦For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

22✦But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.