| 1 My son, if you have become surety to your neighbor, given your hand in pledge to another, |
| 2 You have been snared by the utterance of your lips, caught by the words of your mouth; |
| 3 So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's power: Go, hurry, stir up your neighbor! |
| 4 Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids; |
| 5 Free yourself as a gazelle from the snare, or as a bird from the hand of the fowler. |
| 6 Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn wisdom; |
| 7 For though she has no chief, no commander or ruler, |
| 8 She procures her food in the summer, stores up her provisions in the harvest. |
| 9 How long, O sluggard, will you rest? when will you rise from your sleep? |
| 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest-- |
| 11 Then will poverty come upon you like a highway man, and want like an armed man. |
| 12 A scoundrel, a villain, is he who deals in crooked talk. |
| 13 He winks his eyes, shuffles his feet, makes signs with his fingers; |
| 14 He has perversity in his heart, is always plotting evil, sows discord. |
| 15 Therefore suddenly ruin comes upon him; in an instant he is crushed beyond cure. |
| 16 There are six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to him; |
| 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; |
| 18 A heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil, |
| 19 The false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers. |
| 20 Observe, my son, your father's bidding, and reject not your mother's teaching; |
| 21 Keep them fastened over your heart always, put them around your neck; |
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| 23 For the bidding is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and a way to life are the reproofs of discipline; |
| 24 To keep you from your neighbor's wife, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. |
| 25 Lust not in your heart after her beauty, let her not captivate you with her glance! |
| 26 For the price of a loose woman may be scarcely a loaf of bread, But if she is married, she is a trap for your precious life. |
| 27 Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his garments not burned? |
| 28 Or can a man walk on live coals, and his feet not be scorched? |
| 29 So with him who goes in to his neighbor's wife-- none who touches her shall go unpunished. |
| 30 Men despise not the thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry; |
| 31 Yet if he be caught he must pay back sevenfold; all the wealth of his house he may yield up. |
| 32 But he who commits adultery is a fool; he who would destroy himself does it. |
| 33 A degrading beating will he get, and his disgrace will not be wiped away; |
| 34 For vindictive is the husband's wrath, he will have no pity on the day of vengeance; |