[2:1] My child, learn what I teach you and never forget what I tell you to do.
[2:2] Listen to what is wise and try to understand it.
[2:3] Yes, beg for knowledge; plead for insight.
[2:4] Look for it as hard as you would for silver or some hidden treasure.
[2:5] If you do, you will know what it means to fear the Lord and you will succeed in learning about God.
[2:6] It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding.
[2:7] He provides help and protection for those who are righteous and honest.
[2:8] He protects those who treat others fairly, and guards those who are devoted to him.
[2:9] If you listen to me, you will know what is right, just, and fair. You will know what you should do.
[2:10] You will become wise, and your knowledge will give you pleasure.
[2:11] Your insight and understanding will protect you
[2:12] and prevent you from doing the wrong thing. They will keep you away from people who stir up trouble by what they say—
[2:13] those who have abandoned a righteous life to live in the darkness of sin,
[2:14] those who find pleasure in doing wrong and who enjoy senseless evil,
[2:15] unreliable people who cannot be trusted.
[2:16] You will be able to resist any immoral woman who tries to seduce you with her smooth talk,
[2:17] who is faithless to her own husband and forgets her sacred vows.
[2:18] If you go to her house, you are traveling the road to death. To go there is to approach the world of the dead.
[2:19] No one who visits her ever comes back. He never returns to the road to life.
[2:20] So you must follow the example of good people and live a righteous life.
[2:21] Righteous people—people of integrity—will live in this land of ours.
[2:22] But God will snatch the wicked from the land and pull sinners out of it like plants from the ground.