2:1  My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you,

2:2  Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding;

2:3  For if you cry for discernment, Lift 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 discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God.

2:6  For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth {come} knowledge and understanding.

2:7  He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; {He is} a shield to those who walk in integrity,

2:8  Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones.

2:9  Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity {and} every good course.

2:10  For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

2:11  Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you,

2:12  To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things;

2:13  From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness;

2:14  Who delight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil;

2:15  Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their ways;

2:16  To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words;

2:17  That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God;

2:18  For her house sinks down to death And her tracks {lead} to the dead;

2:19  None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life.

2:20  So you will walk in the way 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 treacherous will be uprooted from it.