8 Exhortations to Embrace Wisdom
9 Warning Against Enticement
8 Listen, my son, to your father's instruction 8 and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
9 They will be a garland to grace your head 9 and a chain to adorn your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you, 10 do not give in to them.
11 If they say, "Come along with us; 11 let's lie in wait for someone's blood, 11 let's waylay some harmless soul;
12 let's swallow them alive, like the grave,[a] 12 and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we will get all sorts of valuable things 13 and fill our houses with plunder;
14 throw in your lot with us, 14 and we will share a common purse"—
15 my son, do not go along with them, 15 do not set foot on their paths;
16 for their feet rush into sin, 16 they are swift to shed blood.
17 How useless to spread a net 17 in full view of all the birds!
18 These men lie in wait for their own blood; 18 they waylay only themselves!
19 Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; 19 it takes away the lives of those who get it.
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