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11 Like the partridge hatching what it did not lay,
    so are all who amass wealth unjustly;
in midlife it will leave them,
    and at their end they will prove to be fools.

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20 The faithful will abound with blessings,
    but one who is in a hurry to be rich will not go unpunished.(A)

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The getting of treasures by a lying tongue
    is a fleeting vapor and a snare[a] of death.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 21.6 Gk: Heb seekers

17 But your eyes and heart
    are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
    and for practicing oppression and violence.(A)

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13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness
    and his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his neighbors work for nothing
    and does not give them their wages,(A)

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27 Those greedy for unjust gain make trouble for their households,
    but those who hate bribes will live.(A)

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14 They have eyes full of adultery,[a] insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

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Footnotes

  1. 2.14 Gk adulteress; or longing for an adulteress

11 they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for sordid gain what it is not right to teach.(A)

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On that day I will punish
    all who leap over the threshold,
who fill their master’s house
    with violence and fraud.(A)

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The Woes of the Wicked

Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them,

“Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!”
    How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?(A)
Will not your own creditors suddenly rise
    and those who make you tremble wake up?
    Then you will be plunder for them.
Because you have plundered many nations,
    all who survive of the peoples shall plunder you—
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who live in them.(B)

“Alas for you who get evil gain for your house,
    setting your nest on high
    to be safe from the reach of harm!”(C)
10 You have devised shame for your house
    by cutting off many peoples;
    you have forfeited your life.(D)
11 The very stones will cry out from the wall,
    and the rafter will respond from the woodwork.

12 “Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed
    and found a city on iniquity!”(E)

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Social Evils Denounced

Woe to those who devise wickedness
    and evil deeds[a] on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
    because it is in their power.(A)
They covet fields and seize them,
    houses and take them away;
they oppress householder and house,
    people and their inheritance.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.1 Cn: Heb work evil

13 There is a grievous ill that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owners to their hurt,(A) 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture; though they are parents of children, they have nothing in their hands. 15 As they came from their mother’s womb, so they shall go again, naked as they came; they shall take nothing for their toil that they may carry away with their hands.(B) 16 This also is a grievous ill: just as they came, so shall they go, and what gain do they have from toiling for the wind?(C)

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22 The miser is in a hurry to get rich
    and does not know that loss is sure to come.

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