1 My son, if you accept my sayings, || And lay up my commands with you, 2 To cause your ear to attend to wisdom, || You incline your heart to understanding, 3 For if you call for intelligence, || [And] give forth your voice for intelligence, 4 If you seek her as silver, || And search for her as hid treasures, 5 Then you understand the fear of YHWH, || And you find the knowledge of God. 6 For YHWH gives wisdom, || Knowledge and understanding from His mouth. 7 Even to lay up substance for the upright, || A shield for those walking uprightly. 8 To keep the paths of judgment, || And He preserves the way of His saints. 9 Then you understand righteousness, || And judgment, and uprightness—every good path. 10 For wisdom comes into your heart, || And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, 11 Thoughtfulness watches over you, || Understanding keeps you, 12 To deliver you from an evil way, || From any speaking contrary things, 13 Who are forsaking paths of uprightness, || To walk in ways of darkness, 14 Who are rejoicing to do evil, || They delight in [the] contrariness of the wicked, 15 Whose paths [are] crooked, || Indeed, they are perverted in their ways. 16 To deliver you from the strange woman, || From the stranger who has made her sayings smooth, 17 Who is forsaking the guide of her youth, || And has forgotten the covenant of her God. 18 For her house has inclined to death, || And her paths to Rephaim. 19 None going in to her return, || Nor do they reach the paths of life. 20 That you go in the way of the good, || And keep the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright inhabit the earth, || And the perfect are left in it, 22 And the wicked are cut off from the earth, || And treacherous dealers plucked out of it!
Proverbs · Literal Standard Version
Proverbs 2 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
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)