Proverbs 2 (NASB)

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

² Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding;

³ For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding;

⁴ If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures;

⁵ Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover 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 Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones.

⁹ Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity [and] every good course.

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

¹¹ Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you,

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

¹³ From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴ Who delight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil;

¹⁵ Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their ways;

¹⁶ To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words;

¹⁷ That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God;

¹⁸ For her house sinks down to death And her tracks [lead] to the dead;

¹⁹ None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life.

²⁰ So you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous.

²¹ For the upright will live in 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 uprooted from it.

Old Testament