Proverbs Chapter 2
From The Open Bible Project
2:1 My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;
- (a) That is, keep them in your heart.
2:2 So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
- (b) If you give yourself to the true knowledge of God without hypocrisy.
2:3 Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;
- (c) Meaning that we must seek the knowledge of God with care and diligence.
2:4 If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:
- (d) Showing that no labour must be spared.
2:5 then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of [3] God [See Proverbs Footnotes 3].
- (e) This (he says) is the true wisdom to know and fear God.
2:6 For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
2:7 He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;
2:8 that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.
2:9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.
2:10 For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
2:11 Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,
- (f) The word of God will guide you, and teach you how to govern yourself.
2:12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things;
2:13 who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
- (g) That is, the word of God, which is the only light, to follow their own fantasies which are darkness.
2:14 who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil;
- (h) When they see any given to evil as they are.
2:15 who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths:
2:16 To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;
- (i) Meaning, the wisdom which is the word of God, will preserve us from all vices: naming this vice of whoredom to which man is most prone.
2:17 who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God:
- (k) That is, her husband, who is her head and guide to govern her, from whom she ought not to depart, but remain in his subjection.
2:18 for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead.
- (m) Her acquaintance with her spirits and they that haunt her.
- (n) To them who are dead in body and soul.
2:19 None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:
2:20 that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
2:21 For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.
- (o) They will enjoy the temporal and spiritual promises of God, as the wicked will be void of them.
2:22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
