10 For wisdom will enter your mind,
and knowledge will delight your heart.
11 Discretion will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you,(A)
12 rescuing you from the way of evil—
from the one who says perverse things,
13 from those who abandon the right paths
to walk in ways of darkness,(B)
14 from those who enjoy doing evil(C)
and celebrate perversion,
15 whose paths are crooked,(D)
and whose ways are devious.(E)
16 It will rescue you from a forbidden woman,(F)
from a stranger[a] with her flattering talk,(G)
17 who abandons the companion of her youth(H)
and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 for her house sinks down to death
and her ways to the land of the departed spirits.(I)
19 None return who go to her;
none reach the paths of life.(J)
20 So follow the way of good people,(K)
and keep to the paths of the righteous.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:16 Or foreign woman

10 Wisdom will enter your mind,
    and knowledge will fill you with delight.
11 Discretion will guard you;
    understanding will protect you.
12 Wisdom will rescue you from the evil path,
    from people who twist their words.
13 They forsake the way of integrity
    and go on obscure paths.
14 They enjoy doing evil,
    rejoicing in their twisted evil.
15 Their paths are confused;
    they get lost on their way.
16 Wisdom will rescue you from the mysterious woman,
    from the foreign woman with her slick words.
17 She leaves behind the partner of her youth;
    she even forgets her covenant with God.
18 Her house sinks down to death,
    and her paths go down to the shadowy dead.
19 All those who go to her will never return;
    they will never again reach the ways of the living.
20 So you should stay on the path of good people,
    guarding the road of the righteous.

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