Proverbs 6

Proverbs 6

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 Yahweh 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.