Proverbs 2

1My son, if you take hold of what I say and hide my commands away like treasure, 2so that your ear is tuned to wisdom and your heart leans toward understanding; 3if you truly cry out for insight and raise your voice to call for understanding, 4if you go looking for it as you would for silver, and hunt for it as for buried treasure, 5then you will come to see what the fear of the LORD is, and you will discover what it is to know God. 6For it is the LORD who gives wisdom; knowledge and understanding come from his mouth. 7He keeps sound wisdom in reserve for the upright; he shields those who live with integrity, 8watching over the paths of justice and protecting the way of those who are loyal to him. 9Then you will understand righteousness, justice and fairness, and every good road to take. 10For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowing will become a delight to you. 11foresight will stand guard over you, and understanding will keep you safe, 12rescuing you from the road of evil, from people whose speech twists the truth, 13who desert the honest road to go walking down dark ways, 14who enjoy doing wrong and celebrate the twisted ways of evil, 15people whose roads wind and twist, who go astray at every turn. 16It will also rescue you from the woman who is not yours to have, the stranger whose words are smooth and flattering, 17who has turned her back on the man she married when young, and let the covenant of her God slip from her mind. 18Her house slides down into death, and her paths end among the dead. 19None who go in to her ever come back, nor do they reach the paths of life again. 20So you will go the way good people go and stay on the paths of the righteous. 21For it is the upright who will live in the land, and those with integrity who will remain there, 22but the wicked will be removed from the land, and the treacherous will be uprooted from it.