Proverbs 6

Chapter 6

¹My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor,

have given your pledge for a stranger;

²if you are snared in the utterance of your lips,^w

caught in the words of your mouth;

³then do this, my son, and save yourself,

for you have come into your neighbor’s power:

go, hasten,^x and importune your neighbor.

⁴Give your eyes no sleep

and your eyelids no slumber;

⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,^y

like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, O sluggard;

consider her ways, and be wise.

⁷Without having any chief,

officer or ruler,

⁸she prepares her food in summer,

and gathers her sustenance in harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, O sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest,

¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond,

and want like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man,

goes about with crooked speech,

¹³winks with his eyes, scrapes^z with his feet,

points with his finger,

¹⁴with perverted heart devises evil,

continually sowing discord;

¹⁵therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;

in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

¹⁶There are six things which the Lord hates,

seven which are an abomination to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

and hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked plans,

feet that make haste to run to evil,

¹⁹a false witness who breathes out lies,

and a man who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s commandment,

and forsake not your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them upon your heart always;

tie them about your neck.

²²When you walk, they^a will lead you;

when you lie down, they^a will watch over you;

and when you awake, they^a will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,

and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴to preserve you from the evil woman,

from the smooth tongue of the adventuress.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

²⁶for a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread,^b

but an adulteress^c stalks a man’s very life.

²⁷Can a man carry fire in his bosom

and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk upon hot coals

and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

none who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰Do not men despise^d a thief if he steals

to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry?

³¹And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;

he will give all the goods of his house.

³²He who commits adultery has no sense;

he who does it destroys himself.

³³Wounds and dishonor will he get,

and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy makes a man furious,

and he will not spare when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will accept no compensation,

nor be appeased though you multiply gifts.