2:1 My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
2:2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom;
Incline your heart to understanding.
2:3 For if you cry out for insight,
And ①raise your voice for understanding;
▷ ①Lit give
2:4 If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
2:5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD,
And discover the knowledge of God.
2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
2:7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
2:8 Guarding the paths of justice,
And He watches over the way of His godly ones.
2:9 Then you will discern righteousness, justice,
And integrity, and every good path.
2:10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
And knowledge will be delightful to your soul;
2:11 Discretion will watch over you,
Understanding will guard you,
2:12 To rescue you from the way of evil,
From a person who speaks perverse things;
2:13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the ways of darkness;
2:14 Who delight in doing evil
And rejoice in the perversity of evil;
2:15 Whose paths are crooked,
And who are devious in their ways;
2:16 To rescue you from the strange woman,
From the foreign woman who flatters with her words,
2:17 Who leaves the companion of her youth
And forgets the covenant of her God;
2:18 For her house sinks down to death,
And her tracks lead to the ①dead;
▷ ①Lit departed spirits
2:19 None who go to her return,
Nor do they reach the paths of life.
2:20 So you will walk in the way of good people
And keep to the paths of the righteous.
2:21 For the upright will live in the land,
And the blameless will remain in it;
2:22 But the wicked will be eliminated from the land,
And the treacherous will be torn away from it.