Proverbs 2

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

2 That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence:⋮

3 For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:⋮

4 If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:⋮

5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God.⋮

6 Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.⋮

7 He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity.⋮

8 Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.⋮

9 Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.⋮

10 If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:⋮

11 Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,⋮

12 That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:⋮

13 Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:⋮

14 Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things:⋮

15 Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.⋮

16 That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words:⋮

17 And forsaketh the guide of her youth,⋮

18 And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.⋮

19 None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life,⋮

20 That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.⋮

21 For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it.⋮

22 But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.⋮