Proverbs 6

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

2you have been snared by the words of your mouth; you have been caught by the words of your mouth.

3Do this, then, my son, and deliver yourself, for you have come into the palm of your neighbor: go, humble yourself, and urge your neighbors.

4Do not give sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.

5Rescue yourself like a gazelle from the hand, and like a bird from the hand of the trapper.

6Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and become wise.

7which has no chief, officer, or ruler,

8it prepares its food in summer; it gathers its provisions at harvest.

9How long, sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from your sleep?

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

11and your poverty will come like a traveler, and your lack like a man with a shield.

12A worthless man, a man of wickedness, walks with a perverse mouth.

13winking with his eyes, signaling with his foot, pointing with his fingers.

14Perversity is in his heart; he devises evil at all times; he spreads strife.

15Therefore his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken, and there will be no healing.

16There are six things that Yahweh 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 are quick to run to evil,

19a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.

20Keep, my son, your father's commandment, and do not forsake your mother's instruction.

21Bind them on your heart continually; tie them around your neck.

22When you walk, it will guide you; when you lie down, it will watch over you; and when you awake, it will speak with you.

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

24to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.

25Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelids.

26Because of a prostitute, one is reduced to a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts a precious life.

27Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?

28Can a man walk on coals and his feet not be scorched?

29So it is with the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife: no one who touches her will go unpunished.

30People do not despise a thief when he steals to satisfy his appetite because he is hungry.

31But when he is caught, he must repay sevenfold; he must give all the wealth of his house.

32He who commits adultery with a woman lacks sense; whoever does so destroys himself.

33He will receive injury and disgrace, and his reproach will not be wiped away.

34For jealousy is a man's fury, and he will show no mercy on the day of vengeance.

35He will accept no ransom and will not be persuaded, no matter how large the bribe.