| Chapter 2 |
1 | My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind;
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2 | So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge;
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3 | Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge;
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4 | If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth;
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5 | Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours.
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6 | For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason:
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7 | He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil;
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8 | He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him.
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9 | Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way.
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10 | For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul;
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11 | Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you;
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12 | Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false;
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13 | Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads;
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14 | Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;
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15 | Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil:
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16 | To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue;
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17 | Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:
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18 | For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades:
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19 | Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:
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20 | So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright.
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21 | For the upright will be living in the land, and the good will have it for their heritage.
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22 | But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted.
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