Chapter 2

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

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  So that thou incline thy ear to wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding;  

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  Yes, 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; and every good path.  

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  When wisdom entereth into thy heart, and knowledge is pleasant to 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 who flattereth with her words;  

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  Who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.  

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  For her house inclineth to death, and her paths to the dead.  

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  None that go to her return again, neither do they take 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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