Proverbs of Solomon 2 The Excellence of Wisdom

 Proverbs of Solomon 2

The Excellence of Wisdom

1 My son, if you will receive my words, and treasure my commandments within you,

2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom, and incline your heart to understanding,

3 If you cry out for understanding, and lift up your voice for understanding,

4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her 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 That he may keep the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.

9 Then you will understand righteousness, justice, equity, and every good path. 

10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

11 Good judgment will guard you, and understanding will keep you;

12 To deliver you from the way of evil, and from the man who speaks perverse things;

13 From those 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 men,

15 Whose ways are crooked, and crooked in their ways;

16 To deliver you from the strange woman, and from the foreigner, who flatters with her words;

17 Who leaves the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.

18 For her house inclines to death, and her paths to the dead:

19 None who go to her will return, neither will they find the paths of life. 

20 That you may walk in the way of good people and keep the paths of the righteous.

21 For the upright will inhabit the land, and the blameless will remain in it.

22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.