Warning Against Enticement

       Listen, my son, to your father's instruction

          and do not forsake your mother's teaching.

       They will be a garland to grace your head

          and a chain to adorn your neck.

       My son, if sinners entice you,

          do not give in to them.

       If they say, "Come along with us;

          let's lie in wait for someone's blood,

          let's waylay some harmless soul;

       let's swallow them alive, like the grave,

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

       we will get all sorts of valuable things

          and fill our houses with plunder;

       throw in your lot with us,

          and we will share a common purse"--

       my son, do not go along with them,

          do not set foot on their paths;

       for their feet rush into sin,

          they are swift to shed blood.

       How useless to spread a net

          in full view of all the birds!

       These men lie in wait for their own blood;

          they waylay only themselves!

       Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain;

          it takes away the lives of those who get it.

The Book of Proverbs: chapter 1, verses 8 - 19