Proverbs 2
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
The Value of Wisdom
2 My child, if you accept my words
and treasure up my commandments within you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 if you indeed cry out for insight,
and raise your voice for understanding;
4 if you seek it like silver,
and search for it as for hidden treasures—
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
8 guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 prudence will watch over you;
and understanding will guard you.
12 It will save you from the way of evil,
from those who speak perversely,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil;
15 those whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.
16 You will be saved from the loose[a] woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words,
17 who forsakes the partner of her youth
and forgets her sacred covenant;
18 for her way[b] leads down to death,
and her paths to the shades;
19 those who go to her never come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 Therefore walk in the way of the good,
and keep to the paths of the just.
21 For the upright will abide in the land,
and the innocent will remain in it;
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 2:16 Heb strange
- Proverbs 2:18 Cn: Heb house
Proverbs 2
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
2 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee,
2 That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence:
3 For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:
4 If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God.
6 Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.
7 He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity.
8 Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.
9 Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.
10 If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:
11 Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,
12 That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:
13 Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:
14 Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things:
15 Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.
16 That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words:
17 And forsaketh the guide of her youth,
18 And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.
19 None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life,
20 That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.
21 For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it.
22 But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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