[1] My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given your
pledge for a stranger; [2] if you are snared in the utterance of your lips,
caught in the words of your mouth; [3] then do this, my son, and save
yourself, for you have come into your neighbor's power: go, hasten, and
importune your neighbor. [4] Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no
slumber; [5] save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, like a bird from
the hand of the fowler. [6] Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways,
and be wise. [7] Without having any chief, officer or ruler, [8] she
prepares her food in summer, and gathers her sustenance in harvest. [9] How
long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise 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 vagabond, and want like an
armed man. [12] A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked
speech, [13] winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet, points with his
finger, [14] with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord;
[15] therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be
broken beyond healing. [16] There are six things which the LORD hates,
seven which are an abomination to him: [17] haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood, [18] a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil, [19] a false witness who breathes out
lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers. [20] My son, keep your
father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching. [21] Bind
them upon your heart always; tie them about your neck. [22] When you walk,
they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when
you awake, they will talk with you. [23] For the commandment is a lamp and
the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
[24] to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the
adventuress. [25] Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let
her capture you with her eyelashes; [26] for a harlot may be hired for a
loaf of bread, but an adulteress stalks a man's very life. [27] Can a man
carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? [28] Or can one walk
upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched? [29] So is he who goes in to
his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished. [30] Do not
men despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry?
[31] And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods
of his house. [32] He who commits adultery has no sense; he who does it
destroys himself. [33] Wounds and dishonor will he get, and his disgrace
will not be wiped away. [34] For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will
not spare when he takes revenge. [35] He will accept no compensation, nor
be appeased though you multiply gifts.
