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. |