Chapter 2

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

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  So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, [and] apply thine heart to understanding;  

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  Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, [and] liftest up thy voice for understanding;  

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  If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as [for] hid treasures;  

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

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  For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding.  

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  He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: [he is] a buckler to them that walk uprightly.  

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  He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.  

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  Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; [yea], every good path.  

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  When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;  

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  Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:  

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  To deliver thee from the way of the evil [man], from the man that speaketh froward things;  

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  Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;  

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  Who rejoice to do evil, [and] delight in the frowardness of the wicked;  

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  Whose ways [are] crooked, and [they] froward in their paths:  

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  To deliver thee from the strange woman, [even] from the stranger [which] flattereth with her words;  

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  Which forsaketh the guide 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 take they hold of 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 earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.  

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