1 My son, if you would accept my words, and conceal my commandments within you, 2 so that your ears may listen to wisdom, then bend your heart in order to know prudence. 3 For if you would call upon wisdom and bend your heart to prudence, 4 if you will seek her like money, and dig for her as if for treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will discover the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord bestows wisdom, and out of his mouth, prudence and knowledge. 7 He will preserve the salvation of the righteous, and he will protect those who walk in simplicity: 8 serving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of sanctity. 9 Then you shall understand justice and judgment, and equity, and every good path. 10 If wisdom is to enter into your heart, and if knowledge is to become pleasing to your soul, 11 then counsel must guard you, and prudence must serve you, 12 so that you may be rescued from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perversities, 13 from those who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways, 14 who rejoice when they have done evil, and who exult in the most wicked things. 15 Their ways are perverse, and their steps are infamous. 16 So may you be rescued from the foreign woman, and from the outsider, who softens her speech, 17 and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth, 18 and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell. 19 All those who enter to her will not return again, nor will they take hold of the paths of life. 20 So may you walk in the good way, and keep to the difficult paths of the just. 21 For those who are upright shall live upon the earth, and the simple shall continue upon it. 22 Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.
Proverbs · Catholic Public Domain Version
Proverbs 2 Catholic Public Domain Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (3)
- Esther and Daniel are the Vulgate books (Esther 1–16 with the Greek additions as chapters 10:4–16; Daniel 1–14 with the Song of the Three, Susanna and Bel). Baruch 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah.
- The translator's footnotes, cross-references, chapter summaries and book introductions in the CrossWire module are not shown.
- No imprimatur; single translator.
Cross references (22)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Proverbs 3:1; Proverbs 1:3; Proverbs 4:1; John 12:47–48; Deuteronomy 6:6–9
- 2 Proverbs 23:12; Proverbs 18:1; Psalm 90:12; Matthew 13:9; Psalm 119:111–112
- 3 James 1:5; Ephesians 1:17–18; Proverbs 3:6; Psalm 25:4–5; 1 Kings 3:9–12
- 4 Matthew 13:44; Matthew 19:29; Proverbs 16:16; Job 3:21; Proverbs 8:18–19
- 5 Proverbs 1:7; Jeremiah 24:7; Luke 10:22; 1 John 5:20; Luke 11:9–13
- 6 Ephesians 1:17–18; James 1:5; Luke 21:15; Isaiah 54:13; Job 32:8
- 7 James 3:15–17; Proverbs 30:5; Psalm 84:11; 1 Corinthians 3:18–19; 2 Timothy 3:15–17
- 8 Psalm 23:3; 1 Samuel 2:9; John 10:28–29; Psalm 145:20; Psalm 66:9
- 9 Jeremiah 6:16; Matthew 7:13–14; Isaiah 48:17; Psalm 143:8–10; Proverbs 1:2–6
- 10 Jeremiah 15:16; Colossians 3:16; Job 23:12; Proverbs 24:13–14; Psalm 104:34
- 11 Proverbs 4:6; Ephesians 5:15; Psalm 25:21; Ecclesiastes 10:10; Psalm 119:9–11
- 12 1 Corinthians 15:33; Proverbs 8:13; Proverbs 13:20; 2 Corinthians 6:17; Isaiah 59:3–5
- 13 John 3:19–20; Proverbs 4:19; 1 John 2:19; Proverbs 21:16; 2 Peter 2:20–22
- 14 Romans 1:32; Proverbs 10:23; Jeremiah 11:15; Luke 22:4–5; 1 Corinthians 13:6
- 15 Psalm 125:5; Proverbs 21:8; Philippians 2:15; Deuteronomy 32:5; Isaiah 59:8
- 16 Ecclesiastes 7:26; Proverbs 22:14; Proverbs 6:24; Proverbs 7:5–23; Proverbs 23:27
- 17 Ezekiel 16:59–60; Jeremiah 3:4; Ezekiel 16:8; Malachi 2:14–16; Proverbs 5:18
- 18 1 Corinthians 6:9–11; Proverbs 9:18; Galatians 5:19–21; Revelation 21:8; Ephesians 5:5
- 19 Ecclesiastes 7:26; Psalm 81:12; Hosea 4:14; Matthew 19:24–26; Hebrews 6:18
- 20 Hebrews 6:12; 3 John 11; Psalm 119:115; Psalm 119:63; Proverbs 13:20
- 21 Psalm 84:11; Psalm 37:29; Psalm 37:9; Proverbs 10:30; Job 42:12
- 22 Psalm 52:5; Deuteronomy 7:22; Isaiah 3:10–11; Psalm 37:28; Proverbs 10:30
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For in these very books on the study of which they are intent, they read, "The Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding;" and it is from Him they have received their very desire for knowledge, if it is wedded to piety.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)