The Proverbs

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- Chapter 2 -

Reward for the seeker of wisdom

My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you,

so that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudence.

For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence,

if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure,

then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God.

For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge.

He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity:

serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity.

Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path.

If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul,

then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you,

so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities,

from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways,

who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things.

Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous.

So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech,(a)

and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth,

and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell.

All those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of life.

Walking in the way of wisdom

So may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the just.(b)

For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it.

Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.

Footnotes

(a)2:16 The word ‘extranea’ is feminine here, but in English the feminine is discerned from the subsequent use of ‘her’.(Conte)

(b)2:20 The word ‘calles’ is difficult to render in English in just one word. It refers to a less traveled, uneven or difficult path, such as a mountain path, or a rocky or narrow path.(Conte)

Reward for the seeker of wisdom

My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,

so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures;

then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.(a)

For the LORD gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,

who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,

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

who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,

to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,

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

for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits.

None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.

Walking in the way of wisdom

Therefore walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Footnotes

(a)2:5 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim).