Proverbs 2:2-22

²if you pay attention to wisdom and really try to understand;

³if you cry out for insight and call loudly for help in understanding;

⁴if you look for it as if it were silver and search for it as if it were hidden treasure;

⁵then you will understand how to relate to the Lord and discover the truth about God.

⁶The Lord is the source of wisdom; what he says provides knowledge that makes sense.

⁷He gives good judgment to those who live right; he defends those who have good sense.

⁸He supports those who act fairly and protects those who trust in him.

⁹Then you will be able to recognize what is right and just and fair, in fact all that is good in the way you should live.

¹⁰For wisdom will fill your mind, and knowledge will make you happy.

¹¹Good decisions will keep you on track; thinking logically will keep you safe.

¹²Doing this will save you from the ways of evil, from men who tell twisted lies,

¹³who turn away from following what is right to walk down paths of darkness.

¹⁴They happily do wrong; they love how twisted evil is.

¹⁵They live crooked lives doing deceitful things.

¹⁶Doing this will also save you from a woman who acts immorally, from a woman who like a prostitute tries to seduce you with flattering words.

¹⁷Such a woman has left her husband she married when she was young, forgetting the promises she made before God.

¹⁸What happens in her house leads to death; following her way leads to the grave.

¹⁹No one who goes to her comes back; they don't ever find the way back to life again.

²⁰So you should follow the way of the good, and make sure you stay on the paths of those who do right.

²¹For only people who live right will live in the land; only honest people will remain there.

²²But the wicked will be thrown out of the land; those who are untrustworthy will be pulled out by the roots.