Proverbs 2  Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

2 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee,

² That thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence:

³ For if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence:

⁴ If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure:

⁵ Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God.

⁶ Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge.

⁷ He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity.

⁸ Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints.

⁹ Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path.

¹⁰ If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul:

¹¹ Counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee,

¹² That thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things:

¹³ Who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways:

¹⁴ Who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things:

¹⁵ Whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous.

¹⁶ That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words:

¹⁷ And forsaketh the guide of her youth,

¹⁸ And hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell.

¹⁹ None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life,

²⁰ That thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just.

²¹ For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it.

²² But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.