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2:1  My son, if you take my words to heart and look upon my instructions as a treasure,
2:2  attuning your ear to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding,
2:3  if you cry out for the gift of discernment and plead for understanding,
2:4  if you seek for it as for silver and search for it as for buried treasure,
2:5  then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.
2:6  For the Lord himself is the one who bestows wisdom; from his mouth come forth knowledge and understanding.
2:7  He reserves his wisdom for the upright and is a shield to those who lead blameless lives,
2:8  for he guards the paths of justice and keeps watch over the way of his faithful ones.
2:9  Then you will understand equity and justice as well as righteousness—every good path.
2:10  For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will delight your soul.
2:11  Prudence will protect you, and understanding will watch over you.
2:12  Thus, you will be preserved from the ways of evil and from those whose speech is perverse,
2:13  who stray far from the straight paths to walk along roads of darkness,
2:14  who take pleasure in doing evil and delight in leading perverse lives,
2:15  whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious.
2:16  You will be saved from the wife of another, from the adulteress with her seductive words,
2:17  who forsakes the partner of her youth and forgets her sacred covenant with God.
2:18  For her house leads downward to death and her paths descend to the shades.
2:19  Anyone who goes to her never returns or regains the paths of life.
2:20  Take care, then, that you follow the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.
2:21  For the upright will live in the land, and those who are innocent will remain there.
2:22  However, the wicked will be cut off from the land, and those who are faithless will be uprooted from it.