Choose the bright path over the violent path

The taught path is wide enough to run; the violent path is not to be sampled

Hear, my son, and receive my words, and the years of your life will be many. I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in straight tracks. When you walk, your step will not be narrowed; when you run, you will not stumble. Take hold of instruction; do not let go; keep her, for she is your life.

Many years are the proverb's ordinary hope for a well-aimed life, not a countdown you can use against the dead. Instruction is called life because it keeps a person on a path that can be walked.

Wickedness is a night that cannot even name its own stumble

Do not enter the path of the wicked; do not walk in the way of evil people. Avoid it, do not pass on it, turn from it, and go on. They cannot sleep unless they have done harm; sleep is robbed from them unless they make someone fall. They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. The path of the righteous is like the morning light that brightens to full day; the way of the wicked is like deep darkness: they do not know what they stumble over.

The warning is about a practiced appetite for harm, not about every tired or restless person. Light increasing is moral clarity over time, not a mood chart and not a promise of ease. Violence as food and drink means harm has become ordinary nourishment.