Proverbs 2 — NETB

2Verse 1My child, if you receive my words,
and store up my commands within you,
^{Verse 2}by making your ear attentive to wisdom,
and by turning your heart to understanding,
^{Verse 3}indeed, if you call out for discernment –
raise your voice for understanding –
^{Verse 4}if you seek it like silver,
and search for it like hidden treasure,
^{Verse 5}then you will understand how to fear the Lord,
and you will discover knowledge about God.
^{Verse 6}For the Lord gives wisdom,
and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
^{Verse 7}He stores up effective counsel for the upright,
and is like a shield for those who live with integrity,
^{Verse 8}to guard the paths of the righteous
and to protect the way of his pious ones.
^{Verse 9}Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity – every good way.
^{Verse 10}For wisdom will enter your heart,
and moral knowledge will be attractive to you.
^{Verse 11}Discretion will protect you,
understanding will guard you,
^{Verse 12}to deliver you from the way of the wicked,
from those speaking perversity,
^{Verse 13}who leave the upright paths
to walk on the dark ways,
^{Verse 14}who delight in doing evil,
they rejoice in perverse evil;
^{Verse 15}whose paths are morally crooked,
and who are devious in their ways;
^{Verse 16}to deliver you from the adulteress,
from the sexually loose woman who speaks flattering words;
^{Verse 17}who leaves the husband from her younger days,
and forgets her marriage covenant made before God.
^{Verse 18}For her house sinks down to death,
and her paths lead to the place of the departed spirits.
^{Verse 19}None who go in to her will return,
nor will they reach the paths of life.
^{Verse 20}So you will walk in the way of good people,
and will keep on the paths of the righteous.
^{Verse 21}For the upright will reside in the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
^{Verse 22}but the wicked will be removed from the land,
and the treacherous will be torn away from it.