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 For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

11 Discretion[a] will protect you;
    understanding will watch over you,
12 delivering you from the way of evil,
    from men who speak perverse things,
13 and from those who abandon the right[b] path
    to travel along the ways of darkness;
14 who delight in doing evil,
    and rejoice in the perverseness of evil;
15 whose paths are crooked
    and who are devious in their ways,
16 delivering you from the adulteress,
    from the immoral[c] woman with her seductive words,
17 someone who abandoned the companion of her youth
        and forgot the covenant of her God.
18 For her house leads down to death,
    and her paths down to the realm of the dead.
19 None who go to her return,
nor do they reach the paths of life.

20 This is how you will walk in the way of good men
    and will keep to the paths of the righteous.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:11 Or Wise planning
  2. Proverbs 2:13 Lit. straight or upright
  3. Proverbs 2:16 Lit. foreign; i.e. one whose values are foreign to God’s Law