Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head
And ornaments about your neck.

If they say, “Come with us,
Let us lie in wait for blood,
Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

For their feet run to evil
And they hasten to shed blood.

But they lie in wait for their own blood;
They ambush their own lives.

“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,

Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord.

“They would not accept my counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.

“So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way
And be satiated with their own devices.

None who go to her return again,
Nor do they reach the paths of life.

For length of days and years of life
And peace they will add to you.

So they will be life to your soul
And adornment to your neck.

For they cannot sleep unless they do evil;
And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

For they eat the bread of wickedness
And drink the wine of violence.

The way of the wicked is like darkness;
They do not know over what they stumble.

For they are life to those who find them
And health to all their body.

When you walk about, they will guide you;
When you sleep, they will watch over you;
And when you awake, they will talk to you.

That they may keep you from an adulteress,
From the foreigner who flatters with her words.

“They are all straightforward to him who understands,
And right to those who find knowledge.

“Now therefore, O sons, listen to me,
For blessed are they who keep my ways.

Will they not go astray who devise evil?
But kindness and truth will be to those who devise good.

Without consultation, plans are frustrated,
But with many counselors they succeed.

The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels,
And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.

All the brothers of a poor man hate him;
How much more do his friends abandon him!
He pursues them with words, but they are gone.

The violence of the wicked will drag them away,
Because they refuse to act with justice.

A wise man scales the city of the mighty
And brings down the stronghold in which they trust.

For it will be pleasant if you keep them within you,
That they may be ready on your lips.

“They struck me, but I did not become ill;
They beat me, but I did not know it.
When shall I awake?
I will seek another drink.”

The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels,
And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.

When the wicked rise, men hide themselves;
But when they perish, the righteous increase.

Four things are small on the earth,
But they are exceedingly wise:

The ants are not a strong people,
But they prepare their food in the summer;

The shephanim are not mighty people,
Yet they make their houses in the rocks;

There are three things which are stately in their march,
Even four which are stately when they walk:

For they will drink and forget what is decreed,
And pervert the rights of all the afflicted.