2:1  MY SON, if you will receive my words and treasure up my commandments within you,

2:2  Making your ear attentive to skillful {and} godly Wisdom {and} inclining and directing your heart {and} mind to understanding [applying all your powers to the quest for it];

2:3  Yes, if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

2:4  If you seek [Wisdom] as for silver and search for skillful {and} godly Wisdom as for hidden treasures,

2:5  Then you will understand the reverent {and} worshipful fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of [our omniscient] God.

2:6  For the Lord gives skillful {and} godly Wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

2:7  He hides away sound {and} godly Wisdom {and} stores it for the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with Him); He is a shield to those who walk uprightly {and} in integrity,

2:8  That He may guard the paths of justice; yes, He preserves the way of His saints.

2:9  Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and fair dealing [in every area and relation]; yes, you will understand every good path.

2:10  For skillful {and} godly Wisdom shall enter into your heart, and knowledge shall be pleasant to you.

2:11  Discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you,

2:12  To deliver you from the way of evil {and} the evil men, from men who speak perverse things {and} are liars,

2:13  Men 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, wayward {and} devious in their paths.

2:16  [Discretion shall watch over you, understanding shall keep you] to deliver you from the alien woman, from the outsider with her flattering words,

2:17  Who forsakes the husband {and} guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

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

2:19  None who go to her return again, neither do they attain {or} regain the paths of life.

2:20  So may you walk in the way of good men, and keep to the paths of the [consistently] righteous (the upright, in right standing with God).

2:21  For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the men of integrity, blameless {and} complete [in God's sight], shall remain in it;

2:22  But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.