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