For they will be like an elegant garland on your head, and like pendants around your neck.

If they say, "Come with us! We will lie in wait to shed blood; we will ambush an innocent person capriciously.

for they are eager to inflict harm, and they hasten to shed blood.

but these men lie in wait for their own blood, they ambush their own lives!

Then they will call to me, but I will not answer; they will diligently seek me, but they will not find me.

Because they hated moral knowledge, and did not choose to fear the Lord,

they did not comply with my advice, they spurned all my rebuke.

Therefore they will eat from the fruit of their way, and they will be stuffed full of their own counsel.

who delight in doing evil, they rejoice in perverse evil;

None who go in to her will return, nor will they reach the paths of life.

for they will provide a long and full life, and they will add well-being to you.

So they will give life to you, and grace to adorn your neck.

For they cannot sleep unless they cause harm; they are robbed of sleep until they make someone stumble.

For they eat bread gained from wickedness and drink wine obtained from violence.

The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness; they do not know what causes them to stumble.

for they are life to those who find them and healing to one's entire body.

When you walk about, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will talk to you.

so that they may keep you from the adulterous woman, from the loose woman who flatters you with her words.

But they do not realize that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave.

People will curse the one who withholds grain, but they will praise the one who sells it.

Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with abundant advisers they are established.

The Lord abhors every arrogant person; rest assured that they will not go unpunished.

The delight of kings is righteous counsel, and they love the one who speaks uprightly.

The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down into the person's innermost being.

All the relatives of a poor person hate him; how much more do his friends avoid him -- he pursues them with words, but they do not respond.

Making a fortune by a lying tongue is like a vapor driven back and forth; they seek death.

The violence done by the wicked will drag them away because they refuse to do what is right.

The wise person can scale the city of the mighty and bring down the stronghold in which they trust.

For it is pleasing if you keep these sayings within you, and they are ready on your lips.

When you gaze upon riches, they are gone, for they surely make wings for themselves, and fly off into the sky like an eagle!

You will say, "They have struck me, but I am not harmed! They beat me, but I did not know it! When will I awake? I will look for another drink."

The words of a gossip are like delicious morsels; they go down into a person's innermost being.

When the wicked gain control, people hide themselves, but when they perish, the righteous increase.

Bloodthirsty people hate someone with integrity; as for the upright, they seek his life.

There are four things on earth that are small, but they are exceedingly wise:

ants are creatures with little strength, but they prepare their food in the summer;

rock badgers are creatures with little power, but they make their homes in the crags;

locusts have no king, but they all go forward by ranks;

lest they drink and forget what is decreed, and remove from all the poor their legal rights.