Proverbs 2 — Douay-Rheims Bible

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee,● That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: incline thy heart to know prudence.● For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:● If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:● Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God:● Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.● He wilt keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity,● Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.● Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.● If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:● Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,● That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:● Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:● Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in the most wicked things:● Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.● That thou mayst be delivered from the strange woman, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words;● And forsaketh the guide of her youth,● And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.● None that go in unto her, shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life.● That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.● For they that are upright, shall dwell in the earth; and the simple shall continue in it.● But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly, shall be taken away from it.●