- 1My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;
- 2You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.
- 3Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.
- 4Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.
- 5Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
- 6Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;
- 7which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
- 8provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.
- 9How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?
- 10A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
- 11so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.
- 12A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth;
- 13who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers;
- 14in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.
- 15Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.
- 16There are six things which the Lord hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
- 17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood;
- 18a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,
- 19a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.
- 20My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
- 21Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.
- 22When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.
- 23For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
- 24to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.
- 25Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.
- 26For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.
- 27Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?
- 28Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?
- 29So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.
- 30Men don’t despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry:
- 31but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.
- 32He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.
- 33He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.
- 34For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.
- 35He won’t regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.