6
1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have pledged your hand for a stranger,
2 if you have been snared by the words of your mouth, caught by the words of your mouth,
3 then do this, my son, and free yourself, for you have come into your neighbor’s hand: Go, humble yourself, and press your neighbor urgently.
4 Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber.
5 Free yourself like a gazelle from a hunter’s hand, like a bird from the fowler’s hand.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider her ways and be wise.
7 She has no chief, overseer, or ruler,
8 yet she prepares her food in summer and gathers her provisions at harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, sluggard?
When will you rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and your poverty will come like a prowler, your need like an armed man.
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,
13 winking with his eyes, signaling with his feet, pointing with his fingers.
14 With perversity in his heart he plots evil continually;
he sows discord.
15 Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
in an instant he will be broken beyond healing.
16 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
21 Bind them on your heart always;
tie them around your neck.
22 When you walk, it will guide you;
when you lie down, it will watch over you;
when you awake, it will speak with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light, and the corrections of discipline are the way of life,
24 to guard you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the unfaithful woman.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes.
26 For a prostitute brings a man down to a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts a precious life.
27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?
28 Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?
29 So it is with the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry.
31 But if he is caught, he must repay sevenfold;
he must give all the wealth of his house.
32 He who commits adultery with a woman lacks sense;
whoever does it destroys his own life.
33 He will find wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy on the day of vengeance.
35 He will accept no ransom;
he will not consent, though you multiply your gifts.