¹¹ Discretion will watch over you,
and understanding will guard you,^(A)
12 rescuing you from the way of evil—
from the one who says perverse things,
¹³ from those who abandon the right paths
to walk in ways of darkness,^(B)
14 from those who enjoy doing evil^(C)
and celebrate perversion,
¹⁵ whose paths are crooked,^(D)
and whose ways are devious.^(E)
16 It will rescue you from a forbidden woman,^(F)
from a stranger^[a] with her flattering talk,^(G)
17 who abandons the companion of her youth^(H)
and forgets the covenant of her God;
¹⁸ for her house sinks down to death
and her ways to the land of the departed spirits.^(I)
19 None return who go to her;
none reach the paths of life.^(J)
20 So follow the way of good people,^(K)
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
²¹ For the upright will inhabit the land,
and those of integrity will remain in it;^(L)
22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,^(M)
and the treacherous uprooted from it.^(N)

³¹ Don’t envy a violent man^(A)
or choose any of his ways;
³² for the devious are detestable to the Lord,
but He is a friend^[a] to the upright.^(B)

¹² A worthless person,^(A) a wicked man
goes around speaking dishonestly,^(B)
13 winking^(C) his eyes, signaling with his feet,
and gesturing with his fingers.
¹⁴ He always plots evil^(D) with perversity in his heart—
he stirs up trouble.^(E)
15 Therefore calamity will strike him suddenly;
he will be shattered instantly—beyond recovery.^(F)