Proverbs 2:7-22

English Standard Version

⁷he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
    he is ^(A)a shield to those who ^(B)walk in integrity,
⁸guarding the paths of justice
    and ^(C)watching over the way of his ^(D)saints.
⁹^(E)Then you will understand ^(F)righteousness and justice
    and equity, every good path;
¹⁰for wisdom will come into your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
¹¹^(G)discretion will ^(H)watch over you,
    understanding will guard you,
¹²delivering you from the way of evil,
    from men of perverted speech,
¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to ^(I)walk in the ways of darkness,
¹⁴who ^(J)rejoice in doing evil
    and ^(K)delight in the perverseness of evil,
¹⁵men whose ^(L)paths are crooked,
    ^(M)and who are ^(N)devious in their ways.

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

²⁰So you will walk in the way of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.
²¹For the upright ^(U)will inhabit the land,
    and those with integrity will remain in it,
²²but the wicked will be ^(V)cut off from the land,
    and the treacherous will be ^(W)rooted out of it.