Proverbs 2

1My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you; 2and apply your heart to understanding; So as to turn your ear to wisdom, 3and lift up your voice for understanding; Yes, if you call out for discernment, 4and search for her as for hidden treasures: If you seek her as silver, 5* then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, 6Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. For Yahweh gives wisdom. 7He is a shield to those who walk in integrity; He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. 8and preserve the way of his saints. that he may guard the paths of justice, 9equity and every good path. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, 10Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. For wisdom will enter into your heart. 11Understanding will keep you, Discretion will watch over you. 12from the men who speak perverse things; to deliver you from the way of evil, 13to walk in the ways of darkness; who forsake the paths of uprightness, 14and delight in the perverseness of evil; who rejoice to do evil, 15and wayward in their paths: who are crooked in their ways, 16even from the foreigner who flatters with her words; To deliver you from the strange woman, 17and forgets the covenant of her God: who forsakes the friend of her youth, 18her paths to the departed spirits. for her house leads down to death, 19neither do they attain to the paths of life: None who go to her return again, 20and keep the paths of the righteous. that you may walk in the way of good men, 21The perfect will remain in it. For the upright will dwell in the land. 22The treacherous will be rooted out of it. But the wicked will be cut off from the land.