2:1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

2:2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

2:3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,

2:4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

2:5 then [if we are open to and acquire God’s wisdom] you will understand [mentally and experientially] the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God [involves awareness of His nature and attributes].

2:6 For the LORD [the ultimate source of wisdom] gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

2:7 He holds victory [success; literally “wisdom”] in store for the upright, he is a shield [protection] to those whose walk is blameless,

2:8 for he guards the course of the just and protects [guards] the way of his faithful ones.

2:9 Then you will understand what is right [that which conforms to God’s moral and ethical standards] and just [cf. Amos 5:24] and fair—every good path.

2:10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

2:11 Discretion [the ability to plan or act that one gains through the development of wisdom] will protect you [from destructive behavior], and understanding will guard you [from destructive behavior].

2:12 Wisdom will save [rescue; by giving you the ability to perceive perverse counsel] you from the ways of wicked men [cf. Prov. 2:13-15], from men whose words are perverse,

2:13 who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways,

2:14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,

2:15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

2:16 It will save you also from the adulteress [a forbidden woman], from the wayward wife [a stranger] with her seductive words [one of the tricks used by seductive women to lure others into their sinful snare],

2:17 [an adulteress is unfaithful to her own husband and marriage vows] who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant [marriage covenant] she made before God.

2:18 For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

2:19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

2:20 Thus you will walk in [the path we walk determines our destination; cf. Matt. 7:13] the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous.

2:21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;

2:22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.