Proverbs, 2

1. My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

1. My son, if you heed my words and value my commands,

2. So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, [and] apply thine heart to understanding;

2. with your ear attentive to wisdom and your heart obedient to understanding;

3. Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, [and] liftest up thy voice for understanding;

3. if you call for perception and raise your voice for insight;

4. If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as [for] hid treasures;

4. if you seek it as silver and search for it more than any treasure

5. Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

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

6. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding.

6. For Yahweh gives wisdom and from his mouth come knowledge and insight.

7. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: [he is] a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

7. He reserves his help for the upright and is a shield for those who walk in integrity;

8. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

8. he guards the ways of the just and protects the steps of his faithful.

9. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; [yea], every good path.

9. Then you will understand justice, discernment and integrity - all that leads you to happiness.

10. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

10. Wisdom will abide in your heart and knowledge will comfort your inner self.

11. Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

11. Foresight will guide you and understanding will protect you.

12. To deliver thee from the way of the evil [man], from the man that speaketh froward things;

12. It will guard you from evil, from people of misleading speech,

13. Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

13. from those who have abandoned the ways of honesty to walk the roads of darkness;

14. Who rejoice to do evil, [and] delight in the frowardness of the wicked;

14. they rejoice in evildoing, they revel in perversions;

15. Whose ways [are] crooked, and [they] froward in their paths:

15. their paths are crooked and their ways devious.

16. To deliver thee from the strange woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words;

16. Wisdom keeps you from the alien woman, from the stranger with her smooth words,

17. Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

17. who deserts the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

18. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

18. For her house inclines towards death, her paths towards the grave.

19. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

19. Those who go to her never return, they do not regain the paths of life.

20. That thou mayest walk in the way of good [men], and keep the paths of the righteous.

20. So you will walk along the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the virtuous.

21. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

21. For the honest will inherit the land; the people of integrity will live on it.

22. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

22. The evildoers instead will be cut off from the land. The wicked will be rooted out of it.