Proverbs 6

Practical Warnings

¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,

have given your pledge for a stranger,

²if you are snared in the words of your mouth,

caught in the words of your mouth,

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

for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:

go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.

⁴Give your eyes no sleep

and your eyelids no slumber;

⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,

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 bread in summer

and gathers her food 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 robber,

and want like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man,

goes about with crooked speech,

¹³winks with his eyes, signals 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 that the Lord hates,

seven that 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 one who sows discord among brothers.

Warnings Against Adultery

²⁰My son, keep your father's commandment,

and forsake not your mother's teaching.

²¹Bind them on your heart always;

tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will lead you;

when you lie down, they will watch over you;

and when you awake, they 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 adulteress.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

²⁶for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread,

but a married woman hunts down a precious life.

²⁷Can a man carry fire next to his chest

and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk on 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.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals

to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,

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

he will give all the goods of his house.

³²He who commits adultery lacks sense;

he who does it destroys himself.

³³He will get wounds and dishonor,

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;

he will refuse though you multiply gifts.