Proverbs 2:11-22

Christian Standard Bible

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.
²¹ For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those of integrity will remain in it;^(L)
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,^(M)
and the treacherous ripped out of it.^(N)