| 1 | My son, if you will receive my words and treasure up my commandments within you, |
| 2 | Making your ear attentive to skillful
and
godly
[a]Wisdom
and
inclining and directing your heart
and
mind to understanding [applying all your powers to the quest for it]; |
| 3 | Yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, |
| 4 | If you seek [Wisdom] as for silver and search for skillful
and
godly Wisdom as for hidden treasures, |
| 5 | Then you will understand the reverent
and
worshipful fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of [our omniscient] God. |
| 6 | For the Lord gives skillful
and
godly Wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. |
| 7 | He hides away sound
and
godly Wisdom
and
stores it for the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with Him); He is a shield to those who walk uprightly
and
in integrity, |
| 8 | That He may guard the paths of justice; yes, He preserves the way of His saints. |
| 9 | Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and fair dealing [in every area and relation]; yes, you will understand every good path. |
| 10 | For skillful
and
godly Wisdom shall enter into your heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant to you. |
| 11 | Discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you, |
| 12 | To deliver you from the way of evil
and
the evil men, from men who speak perverse things
and
are liars, |
| 13 | Men who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, |
| 14 | Who rejoice to do evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, |
| 15 | Who are crooked in their ways, wayward
and
devious in their paths. |
| 16 | [Discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you] to deliver you from the alien woman, from the outsider with her flattering words, |
| 17 | Who forsakes the husband
and
guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. |
| 18 | For her house sinks down to death and her paths to the spirits [of the dead]. |
| 19 | None who go to her return again, neither do they attain
or
regain the paths of life. |
| 20 | So may you walk in the way of good men, and keep to the paths of the [consistently] righteous (the upright, in right standing with God). |
| 21 | For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the men of integrity, blameless
and
complete [in God’s sight], shall remain in it; |
| 22 | But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the treacherous shall be rooted out of it. |
Cross references:
-
Proverbs 2:5 : Prov. 1:7.
-
Proverbs 2:8 : I Sam. 2:9; Ps. 66:8, 9.
-
Proverbs 2:16 : Prov. 2:11.
|