Proverbs 2 (NIV)

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Moral Benefits of Wisdom

 ¹ My son, if you accept my words
   and store up my commands within you,  
² turning your ear to wisdom
   and applying your heart to understanding,
³ and if you call out for insight
   and cry aloud for understanding,
⁴ and if you look for it as for silver
   and search for it as for hidden treasure,
⁵ then you will understand the fear of the LORD
   and find the knowledge of God.
⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom,
   and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
⁷ He holds victory in store for the upright,
   he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
⁸ for he guards the course of the just
   and protects the way of his faithful ones.
 ⁹ Then you will understand what is right and just
   and fair—every good path.
¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart,
   and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
¹¹ Discretion will protect you,
   and understanding will guard you.
 ¹² Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,
   from men whose words are perverse,
¹³ who leave the straight paths
   to walk in dark ways,
¹⁴ who delight in doing wrong
   and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,
¹⁵ whose paths are crooked
   and who are devious in their ways.
 ¹⁶ It will save you also from the adulteress,
   from the wayward wife with her seductive words,
¹⁷ who has left the partner of her youth
   and ignored the covenant she made before God.
¹⁸ For her house leads down to death
   and her paths to the spirits of the dead.
¹⁹ None who go to her return
   or attain the paths of life.
 ²⁰ Thus you will walk in the ways of good men
   and keep to the paths of the righteous.
²¹ For the upright will live in the land,
   and the blameless will remain in it;
²² but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
   and the unfaithful will be torn from it.


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New International Version 1984 (NIV1984) - Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica