Proverbs 1:8-19 - Lecture Against Gang Behavior

⁸ Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction,
and don’t reject your mother’s teaching,
⁹ for they will be a garland of grace on your head
and a gold chain around your neck.
¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you,
don’t be persuaded.
¹¹ If they say—“Come with us!
Let’s set an ambush and kill someone.
Let’s attack some innocent person just for fun!
¹² Let’s swallow them alive, like Sheol,
still healthy as they go down to the Pit.
¹³ We’ll find all kinds of valuable property
and fill our houses with plunder.
¹⁴ Throw in your lot with us,
and we’ll all share our money”—
¹⁵ my son, don’t travel that road with them
or set foot on their path,
¹⁶ because their feet run toward trouble
and they hurry to commit murder.
¹⁷ It is foolish to spread a net
where any bird can see it,
¹⁸ but they set an ambush to kill themselves;
they attack their own lives.
¹⁹ Such are the paths of all who make profit dishonestly;
it takes the lives of those who receive it.