Proverbs 2

1 “My son, if you receive the word of my command and hide it within yourself,

2 your ear will listen to wisdom, and you will apply your heart to understanding; you will apply it to instructing your son.

3 For if you call on wisdom, give your voice to understanding, and seek perception with a loud voice;

4 if you seek her like silver and search for her like treasures;

5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find knowledge of God.

6 For the Lord gives wisdom, and knowledge and understanding come from his presence.

7 He stores up rescue for those who walk uprightly and will shield their journey.

8 He guards paths of rules and preserves the way of those who revere him.

9 Then you will understand righteousness and judgment, and you will direct every good course.

10 For if wisdom enters your mind and perception seems beautiful to your soul,

11 good counsel will guard you and holy reflection will keep you,

12 rescuing you from an evil way and from a man who says nothing trustworthy.

13 You who abandon straight paths to travel roads of darkness,

14 who rejoice over evil and delight in evil perversity,

15 whose paths are crooked and whose tracks are winding.

16 This will keep you far from a straight road and estranged from a righteous purpose.

17 My son, do not let evil counsel overtake you, counsel that abandons the instruction of youth and has forgotten God’s covenant.

18 She placed her house beside death and her tracks beside Hades among the earthborn giants.

19 None who go to her will return or take hold of straight paths, for the years of life do not overtake them.

20 If they had traveled good paths, they would have found smooth paths of righteousness.

21 Good people will inhabit the earth, and the innocent will remain in it, because the upright will make their home in the land and the holy will remain in it.

22 The paths of the ungodly will perish from the earth, and lawbreakers will be driven out of it.”