Proverbs 2
2
The Value of Wisdom
1 # See ch. 1:8 My son, #[ch. 4:1, 10, 20; 7:1]if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice #ch. 4:1, 5, 7for understanding,
4if you seek it like #ch. 3:14 silver
and search for it as for #Job 3:21; [Matt. 13:44]hidden treasures,
5then #[Ps. 25:14; John 7:17; 14:21]you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
6For #Job 32:8the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is #ch. 30:5; See Ps. 3:3 a shield to those who #Ps. 84:11walk in integrity,
8guarding the paths of justice
and #1 Sam. 2:9; Ps. 66:9; 97:10 watching over the way of his #See Ps. 30:4saints.
9 # [ver. 5] Then you will understand #ch. 1:3righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 # ch. 1:4 discretion will #ch. 6:22watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
12delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
13who forsake the paths of uprightness
to #Ps. 82:5; [John 3:19, 20]walk in the ways of darkness,
14who #Jer. 11:15; [ch. 10:23] rejoice in doing evil
and #[Ps. 50:18; Rom. 1:32]delight in the perverseness of evil,
15men whose #Ps. 125:5; [ch. 21:8] paths are crooked,
# ch. 14:2 and who are #ch. 3:32devious in their ways.
16So #ch. 7:5 you will be delivered from the forbidden#2:16 Hebrew strange woman,
from #ch. 6:24; 23:27 the adulteress#2:16 Hebrew foreign woman with #ch. 6:24; Ps. 5:9her smooth words,
17who forsakes #Jer. 3:4; [Ps. 55:13] the companion of her youth
and forgets #[Mal. 2:14, 15]the covenant of her God;
18 # ch. 7:27 for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;#2:18 Hebrew to the Rephaim
19none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
20So you will walk in the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21For the upright #ch. 10:30will inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
22but the wicked will be #See Ps. 37:38 cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be #ch. 15:25; Deut. 28:63; Ps. 52:5rooted out of it.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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