10 For (A)wisdom will enter your heart,
And (B)knowledge will be delightful to your soul;
11 Discretion will (C)watch over you,
Understanding will guard you,
12 To (D)rescue you from the way of evil,
From a person who speaks (E)perverse things;
13 From those who (F)leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the (G)ways of darkness;
14 Who (H)delight in doing evil
And rejoice in the perversity of evil;
15 Whose paths are (I)crooked,
And who are devious in their ways;
16 To (J)rescue you from the strange woman,
From the (K)foreign woman who flatters with her words,
17 Who leaves the (L)companion of her youth
And forgets the (M)covenant of her God;
18 For (N)her house sinks down to death,
And her tracks lead to the [a]dead;
19 None (O)who go to her return,
Nor do they reach the (P)paths of life.
20 So you will (Q)walk in the way of good people
And keep to the (R)paths of the righteous.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:18 Lit departed spirits

10 for wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul.[a]
11 Discretion will watch over you;
    understanding will protect you,
12 in order to deliver you from the way of evil,[b]
    from a man who speaks devious things—
13 those who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to walk in ways of darkness,
14 those who are happy to do evil,
    for they delight in the deviousness of evil,
15 who are crooked in their ways,[c]
    and devious in their paths;
16 in order to deliver you from a strange woman,
    from a foreign woman who flatters[d] with her sayings,
17 she who forsakes the partner of her youth
    and has forgotten the covenant of her God,
18 for her house sinks to death,
    and to the dead[e] are her paths.
19 Of all who go to her, none shall return,
    nor do they reach paths of life.
20 So that you will walk on the road of those who are good,
    and the paths of those who are righteous you shall keep.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:10 Or “inner self”
  2. Proverbs 2:12 Or “evildoer”
  3. Proverbs 2:15 Literally “that in their ways are crooked”
  4. Proverbs 2:16 Or “makes smooth”
  5. Proverbs 2:18 Or “Rephaim”