1 Yahweh Gives Wisdom My son, if you will receive my wordsAnd treasure my commandments within you,
2 To make your ear pay attention to wisdom,Incline your heart to discernment;
3 For if you call out for understanding,Give your voice for discernment;
4 If you seek her as silverAnd search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 Then you will understand the fear of YahwehAnd find the knowledge of God.
6 For Yahweh gives wisdom;From His mouthcomeknowledge and discernment.
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright,A shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 To guard the paths of justice,And He keeps the way of His holy ones.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justiceAnd equity—every good track.
10 For wisdom will enter your heartAnd knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 Discretion will keep you,Discernment will guard you,
12 To deliver you from the way of evil,From the man who speaks perverse things;
13 From those who forsake the paths of uprightnessTo walk in the ways of darkness;
14 Who are glad to do evilAnd they rejoice in the perversity of evil;
15 Whose paths are crooked,And who are devious in their tracks;
16 To deliver you from the 2:16A forbidden woman, outside of the marriage covenant; an adulteress; parallel with foreign woman; so in Prov strange woman,From the 2:16An unfamiliar woman, alien to the marriage covenant; parallel with strange woman foreign woman who flatters with her words;
17 Who forsakes the close companion of her youthAnd forgets the covenant of her God;
18 For her house 2:18 Lit bows down sinks down to deathAnd her tracksdescendto the 2:18 Lit departed spirits dead;
19 All who go to her will not return,And they will not reach the paths of life.
20 So that you will walk in the way of good menAnd keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will dwell in the landAnd the blameless will remain in it;
22 But the wicked will be cut off from the landAnd the treacherous will be torn away from it.