Prologue: Exhortations to Embrace Wisdom

Warning Against the Invitation of Sinful Men

8 Listen, my son,m to your father’sn instruction

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.o

9 They are a garland to grace your head

and a chain to adorn your neck.p

10 My son, if sinful men enticeq you,

do not give inr to them.s

11 If they say, “Come along with us;

let’s lie in waitt for innocent blood,

let’s ambush some harmless soul;

12 let’s swallowu them alive, like the grave,

and whole, like those who go down to the pit;v

13 we will get all sorts of valuable things

and fill our houses with plunder;

14 cast lots with us;

we will all share the lootw”—

15 my son, do not go along with them,

do not set footx on their paths;y

16 for their feet rush into evil,z

they are swift to shed blood.a

17 How useless to spread a net

where every bird can see it!

18 These men lie in waitb for their own blood;

they ambush only themselves!c

19 Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain;

it takes away the life of those who get it.d