Proverbs 6

The sluggard and the ant

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,a ²you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth.b ³So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go—to the point of exhaustion— and give your neighbor no rest!

⁴Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. ⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. ⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!c

⁷It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, ⁸yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. ⁹How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— ¹¹and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. ¹²A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, ¹³who winks maliciously with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, ¹⁴who plots evil with deceit in his heart— he always stirs up conflict.

¹⁵Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy. ¹⁶There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:d ¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,e ¹⁸a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,f ¹⁹a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

The fire you cannot carry

²⁰My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. ²¹Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck. ²²When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

²³For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life,g ²⁴keeping you from your neighbor’s wife, from the smooth talk of a wayward woman. ²⁵Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

²⁶For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man’s wife preys on your very life. ²⁷Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? ²⁸Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?

²⁹So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. ³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. ³¹Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.h

³²But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself. ³³Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away. ³⁴For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.