The father piles up verbs of reception and pursuit: accept, store up, turn the ear, apply the heart, call out, cry aloud, look, and search. Wisdom is not gained casually. The son must receive instruction internally and pursue insight as hidden treasure.
Proverbs 2:1-11
1 My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,
2 so as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call 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:
The promised result of seeking wisdom is understanding the fear of the LORD and finding the knowledge of God. The reason is theological: the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up success for the upright and shields those whose walk is blameless, guarding the course of the just and protecting the way of his faithful ones.
5 then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
7 He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints.
The learner who receives divine wisdom will understand righteousness, justice, equity, and every good path. Wisdom enters the heart, knowledge becomes pleasant to the soul, discretion protects, and understanding guards.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
11 Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,
Wisdom delivers the learner from the way of wicked men whose words are perverse, whose paths abandon what is right, who delight in wrongdoing, and whose ways are crooked and devious.
Proverbs 2:12-22
12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths,
Wisdom also delivers from the adulterous woman, whose seductive words conceal covenant betrayal. She has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant made before God. Her house sinks toward death, and her paths lead toward the dead.
16 to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words,
17 who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God;
18 for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits.
19 None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.
The chapter closes by returning to the path imagery. Wisdom enables the learner to walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. The upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it, but the wicked and unfaithful will be cut off and torn from the land.
20 So you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.
22 But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.