Practical Admonitions

1My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbour,

if you have bound yourself to another,6.1 Or a stranger

2you are snared by the utterance of your lips,6.2 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb the words of your mouth

caught by the words of your mouth.

3So do this, my child, and save yourself,

for you have come into your neighbour's power:

go, hurry,6.3 Or humble yourself and plead with your neighbour.

4Give your eyes no sleep

and your eyelids no slumber;

5save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,6.5 Cn: Heb from the hand

like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6Go to the ant, you lazybones;

consider its ways, and be wise.

7Without having any chief

or officer or ruler,

8it prepares its food in summer,

and gathers its sustenance in harvest.

9How long will you lie there, O lazybones?

When will you rise 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 warrior.

12A scoundrel and a villain

goes around with crooked speech,

13winking the eyes, shuffling the feet,

pointing the fingers,

14with perverted mind devising evil,

continually sowing discord;

15on such a one calamity will descend suddenly;

in a moment, damage beyond repair.

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 hurry to run to evil,

19a lying witness who testifies falsely,

and one who sows discord in a family.

20My child, keep your father's commandment,

and do not forsake your mother's teaching.

21Bind them upon your heart always;

tie them around your neck.

22When you walk, they6.22 Heb it will lead you;

when you lie down, they6.22 Heb it will watch over you;

and when you awake, they6.22 Heb it 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 wife of another,6.24 Gk: MT the evil woman

from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

25Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

26for a prostitute's fee is only a loaf of bread,6.26 Cn Compare Gk Syr Vg Tg: Heb for because of a harlot to a piece of bread

but the wife of another stalks a man's very life.

27Can fire be carried in the bosom

without burning one's clothes?

28Or can one walk on hot coals

without scorching the feet?

29So is he who sleeps with his neighbour's wife;

no one who touches her will go unpunished.

30Thieves are not despised who steal only

to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.

31Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold;

they will forfeit all the goods of their house.

32But he who commits adultery has no sense;

he who does it destroys himself.

33He will get wounds and dishonour,

and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

34For jealousy arouses a husband's fury,

and he shows no restraint when he takes revenge.

35He will accept no compensation,

and refuses a bribe no matter how great.