Proverbs 2
The Value of Wisdom
[1] My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
[2] making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
[3] yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
[4] if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
[5] then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
[6] For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
[7] he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
[8] guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
[9] Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
[10] for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
[11] discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
[12] delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
[13] who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
[14] who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
[15] men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.
[16] So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
[17] who forsakes the companion of her youth
and forgets the covenant of her God;
[18] for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;
[19] none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
[20] So you will walk in the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
[21] For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
[22] but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it. (ESV)
