Proverbs 2:6-21

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come knowledge and understanding,

⁷and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way;

⁸that he may guard the righteous ways: and he will preserve the way of them that fear him.

⁹Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment; and shalt direct all thy course aright.

¹⁰For if wisdom shall come into thine understanding, and discernment shall seem pleasing to thy soul,

¹¹good counsel shall guard thee, and holy understanding shall keep thee;

¹²to deliver thee from the evil way, and from the man that speaks nothing faithfully.

¹³Alas for those who forsake right paths, to walk in ways of darkness;

¹⁴who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;

¹⁵whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;

¹⁶to remove thee far from the straight way, and to estrange thee from a righteous purpose. My son, let not evil counsel overtake thee,

¹⁷of her who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God.

¹⁸For she has fixed her house near death, and guided her wheels near Hades with the giants.

¹⁹None that go by her shall return, neither shall they take hold of right paths, for they are not apprehended of the years of life.

²⁰For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths of righteousness easy.

²¹For the upright shall dwell in the earth, and the holy shall be left behind in it.