Proverbs 6: Warnings against Foolishness

Proverbs 6

¹ My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,

² you are trapped by the words of your mouth; you are ensnared with the words of your mouth.

³ Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.

⁴ Give no sleep to your eyes, nor 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 her ways, and be wise;

⁷ which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

⁸ provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.

⁹ How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—

¹¹ so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.

¹² A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth,

¹³ who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers,

¹⁴ in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.

¹⁵ Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

¹⁶ There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:

¹⁷ arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

¹⁹ a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.

²¹ Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.

²² When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.

²³ For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

²⁴ to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.

²⁵ Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.

²⁶ For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸ Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹ So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

³⁰ Men don’t despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry,

³¹ but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.

³² He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

³³ He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.

³⁴ For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.

³⁵ He won’t regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.