Chapter 2

  My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And lay up my commandments with thee;  

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  So as to incline thine ear unto wisdom, And apply thy heart to understanding;  

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  Yea, if thou cry after discernment, And lift up thy voice for understanding;  

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  If thou seek her as silver, And search for her as for hid treasures:  

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  Then shalt thou understand the fear of Jehovah, And find the knowledge of God.  

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  For Jehovah giveth wisdom; Out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding:  

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  He layeth up sound wisdom for the upright; [He is] a shield to them that walk in integrity;  

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  That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints.  

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  Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice, And equity, [yea], every good path.  

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  For wisdom shall enter into thy heart, And knowledge shall be pleasant unto thy soul;  

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  Discretion shall watch over thee; Understanding shall keep thee:  

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  To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak perverse things;  

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  Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness;  

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  Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil;  

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  Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths:  

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  To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words;  

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  That forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God:  

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  For her house inclineth unto death, And her paths unto the dead;  

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  None that go unto her return again, Neither do they attain unto the paths of life:  

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  That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous.  

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  For the upright shall dwell in the land, And the perfect shall remain in it.  

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  But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it.  

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