¹⁸ Evil people get rich for the moment,
    but the reward of the godly will last.

⁸ When you dig a well,
    you might fall in.
When you demolish an old wall,
    you could be bitten by a snake.

¹² I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness,
    and you will harvest a crop of love.
Plow up the hard ground of your hearts,
    for now is the time to seek the Lord,
that he may come
    and shower righteousness upon you.’

¹³ “But you have cultivated wickedness
    and harvested a thriving crop of sins.
You have eaten the fruit of lies—
    trusting in your military might,
believing that great armies
    could make your nation safe.

⁸ Those who plant injustice will harvest disaster,
    and their reign of terror will come to an end.^[a]

⁵ Those who plant in tears
    will harvest with shouts of joy.
⁶ They weep as they go to plant their seed,
    but they sing as they return with the harvest.

¹⁸ But these people set an ambush for themselves;
    they are trying to get themselves killed.

⁵ They hatch deadly snakes
    and weave spiders’ webs.
Whoever eats their eggs will die;
    whoever cracks them will hatch a viper.
⁶ Their webs can’t be made into clothing,
    and nothing they do is productive.
All their activity is filled with sin,
    and violence is their trademark.
⁷ Their feet run to do evil,
    and they rush to commit murder.
They think only about sinning.
    Misery and destruction always follow them.
⁸ They don’t know where to find peace
    or what it means to be just and good.
They have mapped out crooked roads,
    and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace.

²² An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
    they are ropes that catch and hold him.