Chapter 2: The Book of Proverbs
DOUAY RHEIMS BIBLE
THE CHALLONER REVISION
THE BOOK OF PROVERBS
CHAPTER 2
The advantages of wisdom: and the evils from which it delivers.
M
Y son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee,
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That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: incline thy heart to know prudence.
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For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:
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If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:
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Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God:
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Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.
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He wilt keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity,
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Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.
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Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.
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If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:
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Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,
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That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:
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Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:
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Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in the most wicked things:
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Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.
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That thou mayst be delivered from the strange woman, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words;
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And forsaketh the guide of her youth,
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And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.
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None that go in unto her, shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life.
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That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.
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For they that are upright, shall dwell in the earth; and the simple shall continue in it.
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But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly, shall be taken away from it.