Make it to the top by lying and cheating;
    get paid with smoke and a promotion—to death!

The wicked get buried alive by their loot
    because they refuse to use it to help others.

Mixed motives twist life into tangles;
    pure motives take you straight down the road.

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A fortune made by a lying tongue
    is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.[a](A)

The violence of the wicked will drag them away,(B)
    for they refuse to do what is right.

The way of the guilty is devious,(C)
    but the conduct of the innocent is upright.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 21:6 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint and Vulgate; most Hebrew manuscripts vapor for those who seek death