Proverbs 6

Practical Warnings

1  My son, if you have put up a security for your neighbor,
have b given your pledge for a stranger,
 2 if you are c snared in the words of your mouth,
caught in the words of your mouth,
 3 then do this, my son, and save yourself,
for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
go, hasten ▼
▼ Or humble yourself
 and e plead urgently with your neighbor.
 4  f Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
 5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, ▼
▼ Hebrew lacks  of the hunter

h like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
 6  i Go to j the ant, O k sluggard;
consider her ways, and l be wise.
 7  m Without having any chief,
n officer, or ruler,
 8 she prepares her bread o in summer
and p gathers her food in harvest.
 9  q How long will you lie there, r O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
 10  s A little sleep, a little slumber,
t a little u folding of the hands to rest,
 11  v and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.
 12  w A worthless person, a wicked man,
goes about with x crooked speech,
 13  y winks with his eyes, signals ▼
▼ Hebrew scrapes
 with his feet,
points with his finger,
 14 with aa perverted heart ab devises evil,
continually ac sowing discord;
 15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
ad in a moment he will be broken ae beyond healing.
 16  There are af six things that the  Lord hates,
ag seven that are an abomination to him:
 17  ah haughty eyes ai a lying tongue,
and aj hands that shed innocent blood,
 18  ak a heart that devises wicked plans,
al feet that make haste to run to evil,
 19  am a false witness who an breathes out lies,
and one who ao sows discord among brothers.

Warnings Against Adultery

20  ap My son, keep your father’s commandment,
aq and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
 21  ar Bind them on your heart always;
as tie them around your neck.
 22  at When you walk, they ▼
▼ Hebrew it; three times in this verse
 will lead you;
av when you lie down, they will aw watch over you;
and when you awake, they will talk with you.
 23 For the commandment is ax a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the ay reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
 24 to preserve you from the evil woman ▼
▼ Revocalization (compare Septuagint) yields  from the wife of a neighbor

from the smooth tongue of ba the adulteress. ▼
▼ Hebrew  the foreign woman

 25  bc Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her bd eyelashes;
 26 for be the price of a prostitute is only bf a loaf of bread ▼
▼ Or (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate)  for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread

but a married woman ▼
▼ Hebrew  a man’s wife
 bi hunts down a precious life.
 27 Can a man carry bj fire next to his bk chest
and his clothes not be burned?
 28 Or can one bl walk on hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?
 29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
none who touches her bm will go unpunished.
 30 People do not despise a thief if he steals
to bn satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,
 31 but bo if he is caught, he will pay bp sevenfold;
he will give all the goods of his house.
 32 He who commits adultery lacks sense;
he who does it destroys himself.
 33 He will get wounds and dishonor,
and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
 34 For bq jealousy makes a man furious,
and he will not spare when br he takes revenge.
 35 He will accept no compensation;
he will refuse though you multiply gifts.
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