Proverbs 6
1 My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor and pledged yourself for a stranger,
2 you have been trapped by the words of your mouth, caught by the words of your mouth.
3 Then do this, my son, and free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor.
4 Do not let your eyes sleep or your eyelids doze.
5 Free yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; observe its ways and become wise.
7 It has no chief, overseer, or ruler,
8 yet it prepares its food in summer and gathers its provisions 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 dozing, a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with a crooked mouth.
13 He winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, and points with his fingers.
14 His heart is twisted; he devises evil all the time and stirs up quarrels.
15 So disaster will come upon him suddenly; in an instant he will be shattered, with no remedy.
16 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:
17 proud eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that hurry to run toward evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies, and one who stirs up quarrels among brothers.
20 My son, keep your father’s commandment; do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
21 Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck.
22 When you walk, it will guide you; when you lie down, it will watch over you; when you wake, it will speak with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is a light; the rebukes of discipline are the way of life.
24 They will guard you from an evil woman, from the smooth tongue of a foreign woman.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her eyes captivate you.
26 For a prostitute may cost only a loaf of bread, but another man’s wife hunts down a precious life.
27 Can anyone scoop fire into his lap without burning his clothes?
28 Can anyone walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?
29 So it is with anyone who sleeps with his neighbor’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief who steals to satisfy his hunger.
31 Yet if he is caught, he must pay back seven times over; he must give up everything in his house.
32 Whoever commits adultery lacks sense; anyone who does so destroys himself.
33 He will find wounds and disgrace, and his shame will never be erased.
34 For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will show no mercy on the day of vengeance.
35 He will accept no ransom and will not give in, no matter how great the bribe.
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