Practical Warnings

1My son, if you have put up security for your neighbour,

have given your pledge for a stranger,

2if you are snared in the words of your mouth,

caught in the words of your mouth,

3then do this, my son, and save yourself,

for you have come into the hand of your neighbour:

go, hasten,6:3 Or humble yourself and plead urgently with your neighbour.

4Give your eyes no sleep

and your eyelids no slumber;

5save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,6:5 Hebrew lacks of the hunter

like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6Go to the ant, O sluggard;

consider her ways, and be wise.

7Without having any chief,

officer, or ruler,

8she prepares her bread in summer

and gathers her food in harvest.

9How long will you lie there, O sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

10A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest,

11and poverty will come upon you like a robber,

and want like an armed man.

12A worthless person, a wicked man,

goes about with crooked speech,

13winks with his eyes, signals6:13 Hebrew scrapes with his feet,

points with his finger,

14with perverted heart devises evil,

continually sowing discord;

15therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;

in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

16There are six things that the LORD 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 make haste to run to evil,

19a false witness who breathes out lies,

and one who sows discord among brothers.

Warnings Against Adultery

20My son, keep your father's commandment,

and forsake not your mother's teaching.

21Bind them on your heart always;

tie them round your neck.

22When you walk, they6:22 Hebrew it; three times in this verse will lead you;

when you lie down, they will watch over you;

and when you awake, they will talk with you.

23For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,

and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

24to preserve you from the evil woman,6:24 Revocalization (compare Septuagint) yields from the wife of a neighbour

from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.6:24 Hebrew the foreign woman

25Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

26for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread,6:26 Or (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate) for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread

but a married woman6:26 Hebrew a man's wife hunts down a precious life.

27Can a man carry fire next to his chest

and his clothes not be burned?

28Or can one walk on hot coals

and his feet not be scorched?

29So is he who goes in to his neighbour's wife;

none who touches her will go unpunished.

30People do not despise a thief if he steals

to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,

31but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;

he will give all the goods of his house.

32He who commits adultery lacks sense;

he who does it destroys himself.

33He will get wounds and dishonour,

and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

34For jealousy makes a man furious,

and he will not spare when he takes revenge.

35He will accept no compensation;

he will refuse though you multiply gifts.