Font Size
Proverbs 1:8-19
New International Version
Proverbs 1:8-19
New International Version
Prologue: Exhortations to Embrace Wisdom
Warning Against the Invitation of Sinful Men
8 Listen, my son,(A) to your father’s(B) instruction
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.(C)
9 They are a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.(D)
10 My son, if sinful men entice(E) you,
do not give in(F) to them.(G)
11 If they say, “Come along with us;
let’s lie in wait(H) for innocent blood,
let’s ambush some harmless soul;
12 let’s swallow(I) them alive, like the grave,
and whole, like those who go down to the pit;(J)
13 we will get all sorts of valuable things
and fill our houses with plunder;
14 cast lots with us;
we will all share the loot(K)”—
15 my son, do not go along with them,
do not set foot(L) on their paths;(M)
16 for their feet rush into evil,(N)
they are swift to shed blood.(O)
17 How useless to spread a net
where every bird can see it!
18 These men lie in wait(P) for their own blood;
they ambush only themselves!(Q)
19 Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain;
it takes away the life of those who get it.(R)
Proverbs 1:8-19
King James Version
Proverbs 1:8-19
King James Version
8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:
12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:
15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:
16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.
19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
Read full chapter
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.