Proverbs 2
Common English Bible
Benefits of wisdom
2 My son, accept my words
and store up my commands.
2 Turn your ear toward wisdom,
and stretch your mind toward understanding.
3 Call out for insight,
and cry aloud for understanding.
4 Seek it like silver;
search for it like hidden treasure.
5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,
and discover the knowledge of God.
6 The Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He reserves ability for those with integrity.
He is a shield for those who live a blameless life.
8 He protects the paths of justice
and guards the way of those who are loyal to him.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice,
as well as integrity, every good course.
10 Wisdom will enter your mind,
and knowledge will fill you with delight.
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.
Mishle 2
Orthodox Jewish Bible
2 Beni (my son), if thou wilt receive my words, and treasure my mitzvot with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto chochmah, and apply thine lev to tevunah (understanding);
3 Yea, if thou criest out after binah, and liftest up thy voice for tevunah (understanding)
4 If thou seekest her as kesef, and searchest for her as for matmonim (hidden treasures);
5 Then shalt thou understand the Yirat Hashem, and find the Da’as Elohim.
6 For Hashem giveth chochmah; out of His Peh (mouth) cometh da’as (knowledge) and tevunah (understanding).
7 He layeth up tushiyyah (wise Torah counsel) for the yesharim (upright ones); He is a mogen (shield) to them that walk in blamelessness.
8 He keepeth the orkhot mishpat, and is shomer over the derech of His Chasidim.
9 Then shalt thou understand tzedek, and mishpat, and mesharim (equity, fairness)‖every ma’agal tov (good path).
10 When chochmah entereth into thine lev, and da’as (knowledge) is pleasant unto thy nefesh;
11 Mezimah (discretion) shall be shomer over thee, tevunah (understanding) shall safeguard thee;
12 To save thee from the derech rah, from the ish medaber tahpukhot (man speaking perverse things);
13 Who leaving the orkhot yosher (paths of uprightness), walk in the drakhei choshech (ways of darkness);
14 Who rejoice to do rah, and delight in the tahpukhot (perverse things) of rah (evil);
15 Whose orkhot (paths) are crooked ones, and they are devious in their ma’agalot (paths);
16 To save thee from the isha zarah (strange woman), even from the nokhriyah (strange [immoral] woman) which useth smooth words;
17 Which forsaketh the alluf (companion, husband) of her youth, and forgetteth the brit (covenant) of her G-d.
18 For her bais inclineth toward mavet, and her ma’agalot (paths) to the refa’im (spirits of the dead).
19 None that go unto her return again, neither attain they to the orkhot chayyim (paths of life).
20 That thou mayest walk in the derech tovim, and be shomer over the orkhot tzaddikim (paths of the righteous).
21 For the yesharim (upright ones) shall dwell in the land, and the tamimim (blameless, faultless ones) shall remain in it.
22 But the resha’im shall be cut off from ha’aretz, and the bogedim (treacherous ones) shall be rooted out of it.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International