CHAPTER 6
1 My son, if thou hast promised for thy friend, thou hast fastened thine hand at a stranger.
2 Thou art bound by the words of thy mouth; and thou art taken with thine own words.
3 Therefore, my son, do thou that that I say, and deliver thyself; for thou hast fallen into the hand of thy neighbour. Run thou about, haste thou, raise thy friend;
4 give thou not sleep to thine eyes, neither thine eyelids nap.
5 Be thou ravished, as a doe from the hand; and as a bird from [the] ambushings of the fowler.
6 O! thou slow man, go to the ant; and behold thou his ways, and learn thou wisdom.
7 Which when he hath no duke, neither commander, nor prince;
8 maketh ready in summer meat to himself, and gathereth together in harvest that, that he shall eat.
9 How long shalt thou, slow man, sleep? when shalt thou rise from thy sleep?
10 A little thou shalt sleep, a little thou shalt nap; a little thou shalt join together thine hands that thou sleep.
11 And then neediness, as a way-goer, shall come to thee; and poverty, as an armed man. Forsooth if thou art not slow, thy ripe corn shall come as a well; and neediness shall flee far from thee.
12 A man apostate, is a man unprofit-able, he goeth with a wayward mouth;
13 he beckoneth with eyes, he trampeth with the foot, he speaketh with the finger,
14 by shrewd heart he imagineth evil, and in all time he soweth dissensions.
15 His perdition shall come to him anon, and he shall be broken suddenly; and he shall no more have medicine.
16 Six things there be, which the Lord hateth; and his soul curseth the seventh thing.
17 High eyes, a tongue liar, that is, accustomable to deadly leasing, hands shedding out innocent blood,
18 an heart imagining full wicked thoughts, feet swift to run into evil,
19 a man bringing forth leasing, a false witness; and him that soweth discord among brethren.
20 My son, keep the commandments of thy father; and forsake [thou] not the law of thy mother.
21 Bind thou those continually in thine heart; and encompass to thy throat.
22 When thou goest, go they with thee; when thou sleepest, keep they thee; and thou waking, speak with them.
23 For the commandment of God is a lantern, and the law is light, and the blaming of teaching is the way of life;
24 that they keep thee from an evil woman, and from a flattering tongue of a strange woman.
25 Thine heart covet not the fairness of her; neither be thou taken by the beckonings of her.
26 For the price of a whore is scarcely a gobbet of bread; but such a woman taketh the precious soul of a man.
27 Whether a man may hide fire in his bosom, that his clothes burn not;
28 either go on coals, and his feet be not burnt?
29 So he that entereth to the wife of his neighbour; shall not be clean, when he hath touched her.
30 It is no great sin, when a man stealeth; for he stealeth to fill an hungry soul.
31 And he taken shall yield the seventhfold; and he shall give all the chattel [or substance] of his house, and shall deliver himself.
32 But he that is an adulterer, shall lose his soul, for the poverty of heart, that is, wanting of reason.
33 He gathereth filth, and scandal to himself; and his shame shall not be done away.
34 For the fervent love and strong vengeance of the man shall not spare in the day of vengeance,
35 neither shall assent to the prayers of any; neither he shall take many gifts for ransom.