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

10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will delight you.
11 Discretion will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you.(A)
12 It will rescue you from the way of evil—
from anyone 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 wayward woman 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 the good,(K)
and keep to the paths of the righteous.

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