Proverbs 2

Seek wisdom like hidden treasure

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,a ²turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—b ³indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,c ⁴and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,d ⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.e

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.f ⁷He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,g ⁸for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.h

⁹Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. ¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. ¹¹Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.i

¹²Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, ¹³who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, ¹⁴who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, ¹⁵whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

¹⁶Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, ¹⁷who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. ¹⁸Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return or attain the paths of life. ²⁰Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. ²¹For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; ²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.