Provérbios 2

¹ My son, if thou wilt receive my words, andThat is, keep them in your heart.hide my commandments with thee;

² So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, [and] applyIf you give yourself to the true knowledge of God without hypocrisy.thine heart to understanding;

³ Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, [and]Meaning that we must seek the knowledge of God with care and diligence.liftest up thy voice for understanding;

⁴ If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as [for] hidShowing that no labour must be spared.treasures;

⁵ Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find theThis (he says) is the true wisdom to know and fear God.knowledge of God.

⁶ For the Lorde giueth wisdome, out of his mouth commeth knowledge and vnderstanding.

⁷ He preserueth the state of the righteous: he is a shielde to them that walke vprightly,

⁸ That they may keepe the wayes of iudgement: and he preserueth the way of his Saintes)

⁹ Then shalt thou vnderstand righteousnes, and iudgement, and equitie, and euery good path.

¹⁰ When wisdome entreth into thine heart, and knowledge deliteth thy soule,

¹¹ The word of God will guide you, and teach you how to govern yourself.Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

¹² And deliuer thee from the euill way, and from the man that speaketh froward things,

¹³ Who leave theThat is, the word of God, which is the only light, to follow their own fantasies which are darkness.paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴ Who rejoice to do evil, [and] delightWhen they see any given to evil as they are.in the frowardness of the wicked;

¹⁵ Whose wayes are crooked and they are lewde in their paths.

¹⁶ To deliver thee from the strangeMeaning, the wisdom which is the word of God, will preserve us from all vices: naming this vice of whoredom to which man is most prone.woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words;

¹⁷ Which forsaketh theThat is, her husband, who is her head and guide to govern her, from whom she ought not to depart, but remain in his subjection.guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

¹⁸ For herHer acquaintance with her spirits and they that haunt her.house inclineth unto death, and her paths untoTo them who are dead in body and soul.the dead.

¹⁹ All they that goe vnto her, returne not againe, neither take they holde of the wayes of life.

²⁰ Therefore walke thou in the way of good men, and keepe the wayes of the righteous.

²¹ For the upright shall dwell in theThey will enjoy the temporal and spiritual promises of God, as the wicked will be void of them.land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

²² But the wicked shalbe cut off from ye earth, and the transgressours shalbe rooted out of it.