Chapter 2

  My son, if thou dost accept my sayings, And my commands dost lay up with thee,  

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  To cause thine ear to attend to wisdom, Thou inclinest thy heart to understanding,  

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  For, if for intelligence thou callest, For understanding givest forth thy voice,  

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  If thou dost seek her as silver, And as hid treasures searchest for her,  

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  Then understandest thou fear of Jehovah, And knowledge of God thou findest.  

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  For Jehovah giveth wisdom, From His mouth knowledge and understanding.  

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  Even to lay up for the upright substance, A shield for those walking uprightly.  

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  To keep the paths of judgment, And the way of His saints He preserveth.  

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  Then understandest thou righteousness, And judgment, and uprightness -- every good path.  

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  For wisdom cometh into thy heart, And knowledge to thy soul is pleasant,  

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  Thoughtfulness doth watch over thee, Understanding doth keep thee,  

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  To deliver thee from an evil way, From any speaking froward things,  

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  Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, To walk in ways of darkness,  

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  Who are rejoicing to do evil, They delight in frowardness of the wicked,  

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  Whose paths [are] crooked, Yea, they are perverted in their ways.  

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  To deliver thee from the strange woman, From the stranger who hath made smooth her sayings,  

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  Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, And the covenant of her God hath forgotten.  

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  For her house hath inclined unto death, And unto Rephaim her paths.  

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  None going in unto her turn back, Nor do they reach the paths of life.  

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  That thou dost go in the way of the good, And the paths of the righteous dost keep.  

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  For the upright do inhabit the earth, And the perfect are left in it,  

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  And the wicked from the earth are cut off, And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!  

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