1My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,
2you are snared by the words of your mouth, you are caught by the words of your mouth.
3Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, humble yourself, and press hard upon your neighbor.
4Give no sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids;
5deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6Go to the ant, you sluggard; see her ways and become wise —
7one who has no commander, officer, or ruler,
8she prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provisions at the harvest.
9How long, sluggard, will you lie down? When will you rise from your sleep?
10A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down —
11and your poverty will come like a prowler, and your want like an armed man.
12A worthless person, a man of wickedness, goes about with crookedness of mouth,
13winking with his eyes, shuffling with his feet, pointing with his fingers,
14with perversions in his heart, plotting evil at all times; he sends out discord.
15Therefore his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken, and there is no healing.
16There are six things Yahweh hates, and seven are an abomination to him.
17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that hurry to run to evil,
19a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sends out discord among brothers.
20Keep, my son, the commandment of your father, and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.
21Bind them upon your heart continually; tie them around your throat.
22When you walk about, it will guide you; when you lie down, it will watch over you; and when you awake, it will talk with you.
23For the commandment is a lamp and the instruction a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
24to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.
25Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelids.
26For on account of a prostitute one is reduced to a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.
27Can a man scoop fire into his lap and his clothes not be burned?
28Or can a man walk on coals and his feet not be scorched?
29So it is with the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30People do not despise a thief if he steals to fill himself when he is hungry;
31Yet if he is caught, he must repay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house.
32He who commits adultery with a woman lacks sense; he who does so destroys himself.
33A wound and disgrace he will find, and his reproach will not be wiped out.
34For jealousy inflames a man’s rage, and he will show no mercy on the day of vengeance.
35He will not accept any ransom, nor will he be willing, however great the bribe you offer.
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