2:1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

2:2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

2:3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,

2:4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

2:5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

2:7 He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,

2:8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

2:9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path.

2:10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

2:11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

2:12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse,

2:13 who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways,

2:14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,

2:15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

2:16 It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words,

2:17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.

2:18 For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

2:19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

2:20 Thus you will walk in the ways of good men 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 cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.