Proverbs 6

6 ¹ My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, ² you have been snared by the words of your mouth, caught by the words of your mouth. ³ Then do this, my son, and free yourself, for you are now at your neighbor's mercy: go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor. ⁴ Give no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. ⁵ Free yourself like a gazelle from the hand, like a bird from the hand of the trapper.

⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise. ⁷ Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, ⁸ she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

⁹ How long will you lie there, sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? ¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, ¹¹ and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and scarcity like an armed man.

¹² A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, ¹³ winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his fingers, ¹⁴ with perverted heart he devises evil, continually sowing discord; ¹⁵ therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

¹⁶ There are six things our Father hates, seven that are detestable to him: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, ¹⁹ a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Your Father's Words, Your Shield

²⁰ My son, keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake your mother's teaching. ²¹ Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. ²² When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. ²³ For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, ²⁴ to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; ²⁶ for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life. ²⁷ Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? ²⁸ Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? ²⁹ So is he who sleeps with his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰ People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry, ³¹ but if he is caught, he will pay 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 jealousy makes a man furious, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance. ³⁵ He will accept no compensation; he will refuse no matter how large the bribe.