Proverbs 2
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Wisdom’s Worth
2 My son, if you accept my words(A)
and store up my commands within you,
2 listening closely[a] to wisdom
and directing your heart to understanding;
3 furthermore, if you call out to insight
and lift your voice to understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it like hidden treasure,(B)
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and discover the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.(C)
7 He stores up success[b] for the upright;
He is a shield for those who live with integrity(D)
8 so that He may guard the paths of justice
and protect the way of His loyal followers.(E)
9 Then you will understand righteousness, justice,
and integrity—every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your mind,
and knowledge will delight your heart.
11 Discretion will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you,(F)
12 rescuing you from the way of evil—
from the one who says perverse things,
13 from those who abandon the right paths
to walk in ways of darkness,(G)
14 from those who enjoy doing evil(H)
and celebrate perversion,
15 whose paths are crooked,(I)
and whose ways are devious.(J)
16 It will rescue you from a forbidden woman,(K)
from a stranger[c] with her flattering talk,(L)
17 who abandons the companion of her youth(M)
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.(N)
19 None return who go to her;
none reach the paths of life.(O)
20 So follow the way of good people,(P)
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those of integrity will remain in it;(Q)
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,(R)
and the treacherous uprooted from it.(S)
Footnotes
- Proverbs 2:2 Lit you, stretching out your ear
- Proverbs 2:7 Or resourcefulness
- Proverbs 2:16 Or foreign woman
Proverbs 2
Wycliffe Bible
2 My son, if thou receivest my words, and hidest my behests with thee (and hidest my commands with thee);
2 (so) that thine ear hear wisdom, bow (down) thine heart to know prudence.
3 For if thou inwardly callest (to) wisdom, and bowest thine heart to(ward) prudence;
4 if thou seekest it as money, and diggest it out as treasures;
5 then thou shalt understand the dread of the Lord, and shalt find the knowing of God. (then thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord/then thou shalt understand reverence for the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God.)
6 For the Lord giveth wisdom; and prudence and knowing is of his mouth. (For the Lord giveth wisdom; and understanding and knowledge cometh from his mouth.)
7 He shall keep the health of rightful men, and he shall defend them that go simply. (He shall keep safe the salvation, or the deliverance, of the righteous, and he shall defend those who go with honesty, or with integrity.)
8 And he shall keep (safe) the paths of rightwiseness, and he shall keep (safe) the ways of holy men.
9 Then thou shalt understand rightfulness, and doom, and equity, and each good path. (Then thou shalt understand righteousness, and judgement, and fairness, and each good way.)
10 If wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowing pleaseth thy soul,
11 good counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall keep thee; (good advice shall keep thee safe, and understanding shall keep thee safe;)
12 (so) that thou be delivered from an evil way, and from a man that speaketh wayward things (and from the person who speaketh wicked things).
13 Which forsake a rightful way (Yea, from those who abandon the right way), and go by dark ways;
14 which be glad, when they have done evil, and make full out joy in worst things; (who be glad, when they have done evil, and rejoice in the worst things;)
15 whose ways be wayward, and their goings be of evil fame. (whose ways be wicked, and whose deeds be shameful.)
16 That thou be delivered from an alien woman, and from a strange woman, that maketh soft her words; (And so that thou be rescued from a strange, or an unknown, woman, who maketh her words soft;)
17 and (who) forsaketh the duke, or (the) leader, of her time of marriage, and hath forgotten the covenant of her God.
18 For the house of her is bowed to death, and her paths to hell. (For her house is on the way to death, and her paths lead down to Sheol, or the land of the dead/and her paths lead down to hell.)
19 All that enter to her, shall not turn again, neither they shall catch the paths of life. (All who go to her, shall never return, nor shall they ever walk again on the paths of life.)
20 That thou go in a good way, and keep the paths of just men. (So see that thou go on a good way, and keep to the paths of the righteous.)
21 Forsooth they that be rightful, shall dwell in the land; and simple men shall perfectly dwell therein. (For they who be upright, shall live in the land; and those who be honest/and those with integrity shall live there.)
22 But unfaithful men shall be lost from the land; and they that do wickedly, shall be taken away from it. (But the unfaithful shall be destroyed from off the land; and those who do wickedly, shall be taken away from it.)
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.
2001 by Terence P. Noble