The Proverbs
Chapter 2
1 – My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee,
2 – That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence:
3 – For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:
4 – If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:
5 – Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God.
6 – Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.
7 – He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity.
8 – Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.
9 – Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.
10 – If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:
11 – Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,
12 – That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:
13 – Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:
14 – Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things:
15 – Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.
16 – That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words:
17 – And forsaketh the guide of her youth,
18 – And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.
19 – None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life,
20 – That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.
21 – For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it.
22 – But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.
The Catholic Bible Online. Scriptures are from The Douay Rheims Catholic Bible 1582-1610 a.d. Version In the Public Domain. The Douay Rheims Bible is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English undertaken by members of the English College, Douai in the service of the Catholic Church.