| 1 | My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another, | |
| 2 | if you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth, | |
| 3 | then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands: Go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor! | |
| 4 | Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. | |
| 5 | Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. | |
| 6 | Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! | |
| 7 | It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, | |
| 8 | yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. | |
| 9 | How long will you lie there, you sluggard? 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 on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. | |
| 12 | A scoundrel and villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, | |
| 13 | who winks with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, | |
| 14 | who plots evil with deceit in his heart--he always stirs up dissension. | |
| 15 | Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed--without remedy. | |
| 16 | There are six things 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 are quick to rush into evil, | |
| 19 | a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. | |
| 20 | My son, keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching. | |
| 21 | Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. | |
| 22 | When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. | |
| 23 | For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, | |
| 24 | keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. | |
| 25 | Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, | |
| 26 | for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very 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 is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. | |
| 30 | Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. | |
| 31 | Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house. | |
| 32 | But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. | |
| 33 | Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away; | |
| 34 | for jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. | |
| 35 | He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is. | |