Proverbs 2

New King James Version

The Value of Wisdom

2 My son, if you receive my words,
And ^(A)treasure my commands within you,
²So that you incline your ear to wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding;
³Yes, if you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
⁴^(B)If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
⁵^(C)Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,
And find the knowledge of God.
⁶^(D)For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
⁷He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
^(E)He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
⁸He guards the paths of justice,
And ^(F)preserves the way of His saints.
⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice,
Equity and every good path.

¹⁰When wisdom enters your heart,
And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
¹¹Discretion will preserve you;
^(G)Understanding will keep you,
¹²To deliver you from the way of evil,
From the man who speaks perverse things,
¹³From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To ^(H)walk in the ways of darkness;
¹⁴^(I)Who rejoice in doing evil,
And delight in the perversity of the wicked;
¹⁵^(J)Whose ways are crooked,
And who are devious in their paths;
¹⁶To deliver you from ^(K)the immoral woman,
^(L)From the seductress who flatters with her words,
¹⁷Who forsakes the companion of her youth,
And forgets the covenant of her God.
¹⁸For ^(M)her house ^[a]leads down to death,
And her paths to the dead;
¹⁹None who go to her return,
Nor do they ^[b]regain the paths of life—
²⁰So you may walk in the way of goodness,
And keep to the paths of righteousness.
²¹For the upright will dwell in the ^(N)land,
And the blameless will remain in it;
²²But the wicked will be ^[c]cut off from the ^[d]earth,
And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.