Proverbs 1:8-19

1:8 Listen, my child, to the instruction from your father,

and do not forsake the teaching from your mother.

1:9 For they will be like an elegant garland on your head,

and like pendants around your neck.

Admonition to Avoid Easy but Unjust Riches

1:10 My child, if sinners try to entice you,

do not consent!

1:11 If they say, “Come with us!

We will lie in wait to shed blood;

we will ambush an innocent person capriciously.

1:12 We will swallow them alive like Sheol,

those full of vigor like those going down to the Pit.

1:13 We will seize all kinds of precious wealth;

we will fill our houses with plunder.

1:14 Join with us!

We will all share equally in what we steal.”

1:15 My child, do not go down their way,

withhold yourself from their path;

1:16 for they are eager to inflict harm,

and they hasten to shed blood.

1:17 Surely it is futile to spread a net

in plain sight of any bird,

1:18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood,

they ambush their own lives!

1:19 Such are the ways of all who gain profit unjustly;

it takes away the life of those who obtain it!