Proverbs 2

¹My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you

²so that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudence

³For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence

⁴if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure

⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God

⁶For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge

⁷He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity

⁸serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity

⁹Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path

¹⁰If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul

¹¹then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you

¹²so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities

¹³from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways

¹⁴who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things

¹⁵Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous

¹⁶So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech

¹⁷and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth

¹⁸and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell

¹⁹All those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of life

²⁰So may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the just

²¹For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it

²²Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it