Proverbs 6

¹ My son, if you have become surety for your associate, And you have clasped your palms with a stranger, ² If you have been trapped by words of your mouth, Have been seized by sayings of your mouth, ³ Do this, indeed, my son and rescue yourself Since you have come into the palm of your associate: Go, bestir yourself and beset your associate; ⁴ Do not grant sleep to your eyes Or slumber to your eyelids; ⁵ Rescue yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, And like a bird from the hand of the trapper. ⁶ Go to the ant, O slothful one; See its ways and be wise; ⁷ Note that there is no captain for it, Superintendent or ruler; ⁸ Yet it is preparing its bread in summer; It hoards its food at harvest. ⁹ How long shall you lie down, O slothful one? When shall you rise from your sleep? ¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands, to lie at rest, ¹¹ And your destitution shall come like a wayfarer, And your lack like a man with a shield. ¹² A worthless human, a lawless man Is one who goes about with a perverse mouth, ¹³ Who winks with his eyes, who declares with his feet, Who signals with his fingers; ¹⁴ Duplicity is in his heart; It is engrossed with evil all the time; It is instigating quarrels. ¹⁵ Therefore calamity for him shall come suddenly; He shall be broken instantly, and there will be no healing. ¹⁶ These are six things Yahweh hates, Even seven that are abhorrences to His soul: ¹⁷ Exalted eyes, a false tongue, And hands shedding innocent blood; ¹⁸ A heart engrossed with lawless devisings, Feet hastening to run to evil, ¹⁹ A false witness who blows out lies, And one who instigates quarrels between brothers. ²⁰ My son, preserve the instruction of your father, And do not abandon the law of your mother. ²¹ Tie them upon your heart continually; Wind them about your throat. ²² When you walk about, it shall give you guidance, When you lie down, it shall guard over you, And when you awake, it shall importune you. ²³ For instruction is a lamp, and law is a light, And the reproofs of discipline are the way to life, ²⁴ To keep you from the evil woman, From the slick tongue of the foreign woman. ²⁵ Do not covet after her loveliness in your heart, And do not let her captivate you with her eyelids. ²⁶ For a woman of prostitution hunts for a cake of bread, Yet the adulterous wife of a man hunts the precious soul. ²⁷ Can a man bank a fire in his bosom And his garments not be burned? ²⁸ Or can a man walk on embers And his feet not be scorched? ²⁹ So is he who comes to the wife of his associate; Anyone who touches her shall not be held innocent. ³⁰ Men do not despise a thief when he steals In order to fill his soul's needs when he is famishing, ³¹ Yet when he is found, he shall repay sevenfold Though he must give up all the wealth of his house. ³² But he who commits adultery with another's wife has lack of heart wisdom; He is causing ruin to his soul who does it. ³³ Contagion and dishonor shall he find, And his reproach cannot be wiped out; ³⁴ For jealousy incites the fury of a master, And he shall not spare in the day of vengeance; ³⁵ He shall not respect any sheltering gift And shall not be willing to relent though you increase the bribe.