Chapter 2

¹ My son, if thou wilt receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with thee; ² thine ear shall hearken to wisdom; thou shalt also apply thine heart to understanding, and shalt apply it to the instruction of thy son.

³ For it thou shalt call to wisdom, and utter thy voice for understanding; ⁴ and if thou shalt seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures; ⁵ then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶ For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come knowledge and understanding, ⁷ and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way; ⁸ that he may guard the righteous ways: and he will preserve the way of them that fear him. ⁹ Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgement; and shalt direct ¹all thy course aright.

¹⁰ For if wisdom shall come into thine understanding, and discernment shall seem pleasing to thy soul, ¹¹ good counsel shall guard thee, and holy understanding shall keep thee; ¹² to deliver thee from the evil way, and from the man that speaks nothing faithfully.

¹³ Alas for those who forsake right paths, to walk in ways of darkness; ¹⁴ who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness; ¹⁵ whose paths are crooked, and their ²courses winding; ¹⁶ to remove thee far from the straight way, and to estrange thee from a righteous purpose. My son, let not evil counsel overtake thee, ¹⁷ of her who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God. ¹⁸ For she has fixed her house near death, and guided her wheels near Hades with the ³giants. ¹⁹ None that go by her shall return, neither shall they take hold of right paths, for they are not apprehended of the ⁴years of life. ²⁰ For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths of righteousness ⁵easy. ²¹ For the upright shall dwell in the

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earth, and the holy shall be left behind in it. ²² The paths of the ungodly shall perish out of the earth, and transgressors shall be driven away from it.