10 For wisdom will enter your heart,(A)
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11 Discretion will protect you,
    and understanding will guard you.(B)

12 Wisdom will save(C) you from the ways of wicked men,
    from men whose words are perverse,
13 who have left the straight paths
    to walk in dark ways,(D)
14 who delight in doing wrong
    and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,(E)
15 whose paths are crooked(F)
    and who are devious in their ways.(G)

16 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,(H)
    from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
17 who has left the partner of her youth
    and ignored the covenant she made before God.[a](I)
18 Surely her house leads down to death
    and her paths to the spirits of the dead.(J)
19 None who go to her return
    or attain the paths of life.(K)

20 Thus you will walk in the ways of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:17 Or covenant of her God

10 When wisdom enters your heart,
And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 Discretion will preserve you;
(A)Understanding will keep you,
12 To deliver you from the way of evil,
From the man who speaks perverse things,
13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To (B)walk in the ways of darkness;
14 (C)Who rejoice in doing evil,
And delight in the perversity of the wicked;
15 (D)Whose ways are crooked,
And who are devious in their paths;
16 To deliver you from (E)the immoral woman,
(F)From the seductress who flatters with her words,
17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth,
And forgets the covenant of her God.
18 For (G)her house [a]leads down to death,
And her paths to the dead;
19 None who go to her return,
Nor do they [b]regain the paths of life—
20 So you may walk in the way of goodness,
And keep to the paths of righteousness.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:18 sinks
  2. Proverbs 2:19 Lit. reach