| Chapter
2 |
| 1 | My son,
if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; |
| 2 | So that thou incline thine ear unto
wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; |
|
3 | Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up
thy voice for understanding; |
| 4
| If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid
treasures; |
| 5 | Then shalt
thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. |
| 6 | For the LORD giveth wisdom: out
of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. |
|
7 | He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a
buckler to them that walk uprightly. |
|
8 | He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his
saints. |
| 9 | Then shalt thou
understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. |
| 10 | When wisdom entereth into
thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; |
| 11 | Discretion shall preserve thee,
understanding shall keep thee: |
| 12
| To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that
speaketh froward things; |
| 13 |
Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; |
| 14 | Who rejoice to do evil,
and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; |
| 15 | Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their
paths: |
| 16 | To deliver
thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her
words; |
| 17 | Which
forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. |
| 18 | For her house inclineth
unto death, and her paths unto the dead. |
| 19 | None that go unto her return again, neither take they
hold of the paths of life. |
| 20
| That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of
the righteous. |
| 21 | For
the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. |
| 22 | But the wicked shall be
cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. |
