The Violent End of Sin

⁸ Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,    and forsake not your mother’s teaching,⁹ for they are a graceful garland for your head    and pendants for your neck.¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you,    do not consent.¹¹ If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;    let us ambush the innocent without reason;¹² like Sheol let us swallow them alive,    and whole, like those who go down to the pit;¹³ we shall find all precious goods,    we shall fill our houses with plunder;¹⁴ throw in your lot among us;    we will all have one purse”—¹⁵ my son, do not walk in the way with them;    hold back your foot from their paths,¹⁶ for their feet run to evil,    and they make haste to shed blood.¹⁷ For in vain is a net spread    in the sight of any bird,¹⁸ but these men lie in wait for their own blood;    they set an ambush for their own lives.¹⁹ Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;    it takes away the life of its possessors.