Proverbs 2
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

The Value of Wisdom

1My child, if you accept my words
    and treasure up my commandments within you,
2making your ear attentive to wisdom
    and inclining your heart to understanding;
3if you indeed cry out for insight,
    and raise your voice for understanding;
4if you seek it like silver,
    and search for it as for hidden treasures—
5then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God.
6For the Lord gives wisdom;
    from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
    he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
8guarding the paths of justice
    and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
9Then you will understand righteousness and justice
    and equity, every good path;
10for wisdom will come into your heart,
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11prudence will watch over you;
    and understanding will guard you.
12It will save you from the way of evil,
    from those who speak perversely,
13who forsake the paths of uprightness
    to walk in the ways of darkness,
14who rejoice in doing evil
    and delight in the perverseness of evil;
15those whose paths are crooked,
    and who are devious in their ways.

16You will be saved from the loose[a] woman,
    from the adulteress with her smooth words,
17who forsakes the partner of her youth
    and forgets her sacred covenant;
18for her way[b] leads down to death,
    and her paths to the shades;
19those who go to her never come back,
    nor do they regain the paths of life.

20Therefore walk in the way of the good,
    and keep to the paths of the just.
21For the upright will abide in the land,
    and the innocent will remain in it;
22but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
    and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 2:16 Heb strange
  2. Proverbs 2:18 Cn: Heb house
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.





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