Proverbs 2
To gain wisdom and knowledge, one must listen to and follow God's commandments, seeking wisdom like treasure and understanding the fear of the Lord. The Lord bestows wisdom and preserves the salvation of the righteous, guiding them on paths of justice and sanctity. Wisdom and knowledge will protect one from evil ways and the corrupting influence of those who rejoice in wickedness, including the seductive foreign woman who leads people to death and Hell. Ultimately, the upright will live on the earth, while the impious will perish.
My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within youso that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudenceFor if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudenceif you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasurethen you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of GodFor the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledgeHe will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicityserving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctityThen you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good pathIf wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soulthen counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve youso that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversitiesfrom those who leave the straight path to walk in dark wayswho rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked thingsTheir ways are perverse, and their steps are infamousSo may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speechand who leaves behind the Guide of her youthand who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward HellAll those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of lifeSo may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the justFor those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon itYet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it
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