then (A)you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.
For (B)the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
    he is (C)a shield to those who (D)walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice
    and (E)watching over the way of his (F)saints.
(G)Then you will understand (H)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 (I)discretion will (J)watch over you,
    understanding will guard you,
12 delivering you from the way of evil,
    from men of perverted speech,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to (K)walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who (L)rejoice in doing evil
    and (M)delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 men whose (N)paths are crooked,
    (O)and who are (P)devious in their ways.

16 So (Q)you will be delivered from the forbidden[a] woman,
    from (R)the adulteress[b] with (S)her smooth words,
17 who forsakes (T)the companion of her youth
    and forgets (U)the covenant of her God;
18 (V)for her house sinks down to death,
    and her paths to the departed;[c]
19 none who go to her come back,
    nor do they regain the paths of life.

20 So you will walk in the way of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:16 Hebrew strange
  2. Proverbs 2:16 Hebrew foreign woman
  3. Proverbs 2:18 Hebrew to the Rephaim

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