Chapter 2

Here, then, my son, is counsel for thee; take this bidding of mine to heart;

ever be thy ear attentive to wisdom, thy mind eager to attain discernment.

Wisdom if thou wilt call to thy side, and make discernment welcome,

as thou wouldst fain hoard riches, or bring hidden treasure to light,

then thou wilt learn what it is to fear God, make trial of what it is to know God.

Wisdom is the Lord’s gift; only by his word spoken comes true knowledge, true discernment.

So it is that he watches over the lives of the upright, bids the innocent walk unharmed;

safe and sound the chosen friends of God come and go.

Duty and right and honour thou shalt discern, and see ever where the best course lies,

if once wisdom finds a lodgement in thy heart, if knowledge once casts her spell upon thee.

Watch and ward right counsel shall keep over thee;

it shall save thee from the wrong choice, save thee from the false counsellor.

False counsellors there are, that leave the high road to walk by dark alleys;

for sin and shame is all their love and liking;

ill guides on a wrong path all of them!

And from her, too, right counsel shall protect thee, the woman that is no daughter of Israel, with her mincing foreign ways,

that has forsaken the love of her youth,

forgotten the troth once plighted to her God. The house she dwells in is death’s antechamber, the road by which she beckons leads to the grave;

never man went in there that came back and set his face towards life.

Thine to choose a nobler course, keeping ever the path of duty;

the upright, the innocent, shall have lands of their own and long enjoy them;

the godless, the wrong-doer will be lost for ever to the scenes they knew.