2:1 My son, if you will receive my words, And lay up my commandments with you;
2:2 So as to incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding;
2:3 Yes, if you cry after discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding;
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 Yahweh, And find knowledge of God.
2:6 For Yahweh gives wisdom; Out of his mouth [comes] knowledge and understanding:
2:7 He lays up sound wisdom for the upright; [He is] a shield to those who walk in integrity;
2:8 That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints.
2:9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, And equity, [yes,] every good path.
2:10 For wisdom will enter into your heart, And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
2:11 Discretion will watch over you; Understanding will keep you:
2:12 To deliver you from the way of evil, From the men who speak perverse things;
2:13 Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness;
2:14 Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil;
2:15 Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths:
2:16 To deliver you from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;
2:17 Who forsakes the best friend of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God:
2:18 For her house inclines to death, And her paths to the spirits of the dead;
2:19 None who go to her return again, Neither do they attain to the paths of life:
2:20 That you may walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous.
2:21 For the upright will stay in the land, And the perfect will be left in it.
2:22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land, And betrayers will be rooted out of it.