Proverbs 6
Warnings against Foolishness
¹ My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger,
² if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth,
³ then do this, my son, to free yourself, for you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go, humble yourself,1 and press your plea with your neighbor.
⁴ Allow no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.
⁵ Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,2 like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
⁶ Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise.
⁷ Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler,
⁸ it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food at harvest.
⁹ How long will you lie there, O slacker? When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
¹¹ and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.
¹² A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,
¹³ winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers.
¹⁴ With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.
¹⁵ Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in an instant he will be shattered beyond recovery.
¹⁶ There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:
¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,
¹⁹ a false witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up discord among brothers.
Warnings against Adultery
²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck.
²² When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.
²³ For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,
²⁴ to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.3
²⁵ Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.4
²⁶ For the levy of the prostitute is poverty,5 and the adulteress preys upon your very life.
²⁷ Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?
²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?
²⁹ So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
³⁰ Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger.
³¹ Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house.
³² He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.
³³ Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance.
³⁵ He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.