⁷The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. ⁸Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,
and do not reject your mother’s teaching;
⁹for they are a fair garland for your head,
and pendants for your neck.
¹⁰My child, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
¹¹If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
let us wantonly ambush the innocent;
¹²like Sheol let us swallow them alive
and whole, like those who go down to the Pit.
¹³We shall find all kinds of costly things;
we shall fill our houses with booty.
¹⁴Throw in your lot among us;
we will all have one purse”—
¹⁵my child, do not walk in their way,
keep your foot from their paths;
¹⁶for their feet run to evil,
and they hurry to shed blood.
¹⁷For in vain is the net baited
while the bird is looking on;
¹⁸yet they lie in wait—to kill themselves!
and set an ambush—for their own lives!
¹⁹Such is the end of all who are greedy for gain;
it takes away the life of its possessors.