The Proverbs

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 2 -

Reward for the seeker of wisdom

My son, listen to what I say, and consider my commands to be as valuable as a treasure.

Pay attention to wisdom and try hard to understand what is wise.

Call out to Yahweh to get insight, plead with him to help you understand more of what he wants you to know.

Search eagerly for wisdom, like you would search for silver, like you would search for a treasure that someone has hidden.

If you do that, you will understand how to give Yahweh the respect he deserves, and you will succeed in knowing God.

Yahweh is the one who gives us wisdom. He is the one who tells us things that we need to know and understand.

He stores up good advice so he can give it to them who honor him by the way they live their lives. He protects those who do with their lives what they say with their lips.

He guards justice and works to see it is done, and he keeps safe those who are faithful to him.

You will understand what Yahweh sees is right and what Yahweh determines is just to do, and he will show you the best way to live.

Wisdom will fill your life; knowing what Yahweh wants you to know will cause you to be joyful.

You will learn to tell the difference between right and wrong and that will keep you safe.

You will not do what Yahweh forbids you to do, and you will stay away from those who imagine horrible things and talk about them.

They go the wrong way, and they walk where there is no light.

They are glad when they do what is wrong, they twist good things into bad and enjoy doing what they know is wrong.

They bend the truth and live by deception and their lies hide what they have done.

Wisdom will keep you safe from the adulterous woman, and you will not pay attention when a strange woman invites you to be with her.

Those women left the husbands they married when they were young, they forgot the promise they made to God to love only the one they married.

Those who enter her house are taken to their death, because the way to her house takes them where dead people are buried.

All who go to her to sleep with her have no way to get out of her house, they will be so lost they will never find the way back to life.

Walking in the way of wisdom

You must live your life in the same way that good men are living. You should do the same things as those who do what is right.

Those who do what is right will receive the land as a gift from Yahweh, and only those who do what they have promised will stay in the land for a long time.

Those who do bad things will have no claim to this land, and people who take advantage of others and do not keep their word, they will never have even a small part of the land.

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).