Proverbs 2:1-22 (Vespers, 2nd reading)
- 1
- My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you,
- 2
- so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
- 3
- yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding,
- 4
- if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures;
- 5
- then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
- 6
- For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
- 7
- he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
- 8
- he guards the paths of justice, and preserves the way of His saints.
- 9
- Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.
- 10
- When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
- 11
- discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you,
- 12
- to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things,
- 13
- from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness;
- 14
- who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked;
- 15
- whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths;
- 16
- to deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words,
- 17
- who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.
- 18
- For her house leads down to death, and her paths to the dead;
- 19
- none who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life –
- 20
- so you may walk in the way of goodness, and keep to the paths of righteousness.
- 21
- For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;
- 22
- but the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.