Proverbs 2:12-22

English Standard Version

¹²delivering you from the way of evil,
    from men of perverted speech,
¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to ^(A)walk in the ways of darkness,
¹⁴who ^(B)rejoice in doing evil
    and ^(C)delight in the perverseness of evil,
¹⁵men whose ^(D)paths are crooked,
    ^(E)and who are ^(F)devious in their ways.

¹⁶So ^(G)you will be delivered from the forbidden^[a] woman,
    from ^(H)the adulteress^[b] with ^(I)her smooth words,
¹⁷who forsakes ^(J)the companion of her youth
    and forgets ^(K)the covenant of her God;
¹⁸^(L)for her house sinks down to death,
    and her paths to the departed;^[c]
¹⁹none who go to her come back,
    nor do they regain the paths of life.

²⁰So you will walk in the way of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.
²¹For the upright ^(M)will inhabit the land,
    and those with integrity will remain in it,
²²but the wicked will be ^(N)cut off from the land,
    and the treacherous will be ^(O)rooted out of it.