Proverbs 2:10-20
English Standard Version
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 (A)discretion will (B)watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
12 delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
to (C)walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who (D)rejoice in doing evil
and (E)delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 men whose (F)paths are crooked,
(G)and who are (H)devious in their ways.
16 So (I)you will be delivered from the forbidden[a] woman,
from (J)the adulteress[b] with (K)her smooth words,
17 who forsakes (L)the companion of her youth
and forgets (M)the covenant of her God;
18 (N)for her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;[c]
19 none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 So you will walk in the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 2:16 Hebrew strange
- Proverbs 2:16 Hebrew foreign woman
- Proverbs 2:18 Hebrew to the Rephaim
Proverbs 2:10-20
New Living Translation
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will fill you with joy.
11 Wise choices will watch over you.
Understanding will keep you safe.
12 Wisdom will save you from evil people,
from those whose words are twisted.
13 These men turn from the right way
to walk down dark paths.
14 They take pleasure in doing wrong,
and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil.
15 Their actions are crooked,
and their ways are wrong.
16 Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman,
from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman.
17 She has abandoned her husband
and ignores the covenant she made before God.
18 Entering her house leads to death;
it is the road to the grave.[a]
19 The man who visits her is doomed.
He will never reach the paths of life.
20 So follow the steps of the good,
and stay on the paths of the righteous.
Footnotes
- 2:18 Hebrew to the spirits of the dead.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
