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