Chapter 2

  My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee,  

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  That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence:  

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  For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:  

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  If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:  

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  Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God.  

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  Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.  

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  He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity.  

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  Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.  

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  Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.  

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  If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:  

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  Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,  

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  That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:  

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  Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:  

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  Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things:  

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  Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.  

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  That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words:  

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  And forsaketh the guide of her youth,  

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  And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.  

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  None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life,  

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  That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.  

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  For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it.  

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  But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.  

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