10 For (A)wisdom will enter your heart,
And (B)knowledge will be delightful to your soul;
11 Discretion will (C)watch over you,
Understanding will guard you,
12 To (D)rescue you from the way of evil,
From a person who speaks (E)perverse things;
13 From those who (F)leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the (G)ways of darkness;
14 Who (H)delight in doing evil
And rejoice in the perversity of evil;
15 Whose paths are (I)crooked,
And who are devious in their ways;
16 To (J)rescue you from the strange woman,
From the (K)foreign woman who flatters with her words,
17 Who leaves the (L)companion of her youth
And forgets the (M)covenant of her God;
18 For (N)her house sinks down to death,
And her tracks lead to the [a]dead;
19 None (O)who go to her return,
Nor do they reach the (P)paths of life.
20 So you will (Q)walk in the way of good people
And keep to the (R)paths of the righteous.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:18 Lit departed spirits

10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will fill you with joy.
11 Wise choices will watch over you.
    Understanding will keep you safe.

12 Wisdom will save you from evil people,
    from those whose words are twisted.
13 These men turn from the right way
    to walk down dark paths.
14 They take pleasure in doing wrong,
    and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil.
15 Their actions are crooked,
    and their ways are wrong.

16 Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman,
    from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman.
17 She has abandoned her husband
    and ignores the covenant she made before God.
18 Entering her house leads to death;
    it is the road to the grave.[a]
19 The man who visits her is doomed.
    He will never reach the paths of life.

20 So follow the steps of the good,
    and stay on the paths of the righteous.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:18 Hebrew to the spirits of the dead.