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 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”