Proverbs 2, side by side

¹My son, if you accept my words and hide my commandments within you,

¹My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

²if you incline your ear to wisdom and direct your heart to understanding,

²So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

³if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,

³Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

⁴if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,

⁴If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

⁵then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.

⁵Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁶For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

⁷He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity,

⁷He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

⁸to guard the paths of justice and protect the way of His saints.

⁸He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

⁹Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity—every good path.

⁹Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul.

¹⁰When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

¹¹Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you,

¹¹Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

¹²to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity,

¹²To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;

¹³from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹³Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴from those who enjoy doing evil and rejoice in the twistedness of evil,

¹⁴Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;

¹⁵whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious.

¹⁵Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:

¹⁶It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words

¹⁶To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

¹⁷who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

¹⁷Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

¹⁸For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.

¹⁸For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.

¹⁹None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

²⁰So you will follow in the ways of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous.

²⁰That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will inhabit the land, and the blameless will remain in it;

²¹For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.

²²But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.