2:1 My son, if you will receive my words, And store up my commandments within you;

2:2 So as to turn your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding;

2:3 Yes, if you call out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding;

2:4 If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures:

2:5 Then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, And find the knowledge of God.

2:6 For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

2:7 He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;

2:8 That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints.

2:9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.

2:10 For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

2:11 Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

2:12 To deliver you from the way of evil, From the men who speak perverse things;

2:13 Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness;

2:14 Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil;

2:15 Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths:

2:16 To deliver you from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;

2:17 Who forsakes the friend of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God:

2:18 For her house leads down to death, Her paths to the dead.

2:19 None who go to her return again, Neither do they attain to the paths of life:

2:20 That you may walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous.

2:21 For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.