Proverbs 2:11-22

Common English Bible

¹¹ Discretion will guard you;
    understanding will protect you.
¹² Wisdom will rescue you from the evil path,
    from people who twist their words.
¹³ They forsake the way of integrity
    and go on obscure paths.
¹⁴ They enjoy doing evil,
    rejoicing in their twisted evil.
¹⁵ Their paths are confused;
    they get lost on their way.
¹⁶ Wisdom will rescue you from the mysterious woman,
    from the foreign woman with her slick words.
¹⁷ She leaves behind the partner of her youth;
    she even forgets her covenant with God.
¹⁸ Her house sinks down to death,
    and her paths go down to the shadowy dead.
¹⁹ All those who go to her will never return;
    they will never again reach the ways of the living.
²⁰ So you should stay on the path of good people,
    guarding the road of the righteous.
²¹ Those who have integrity will dwell in the land;
    the innocent will remain in it.
²² But the wicked will be cut off from the land,
    and the treacherous will be ripped up.