Proverbs 2 · משלי

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and treasure up my commandments with thee;

so that thou incline thy ear to wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding indeed,

if thou criest after wisdom, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

if thou seekest her like silver, and searchest for her as for hidden treasures;

then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom: out of his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a shield to those who walk uprightly,

to keep the paths of justice; and he preserves the way of his pious ones.

Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and justice and equity, every good path:

for wisdom shall enter thy heart, and knowledge be pleasant to thy soul;

discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man who speaks perverse things;

who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of the wicked;

whose ways are crooked, and who are underhand in their paths:

to deliver thee from the strange woman, from the alien woman who speaks so smoothly;

who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.

For her house inclines to death, and her paths to the dead.

None that go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life:

that thou mayst walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the innocent shall remain in it.

But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the faithless shall be rooted out of it.