Proverbs 6

1 My son, if you set aside your money as a guarantee for your neighbor's loan, if you gave your promise for a loan of someone you do not know,⋮

2 then you have laid a trap for yourself by your promise and you have been caught by the words of your mouth.⋮

3 When you are caught by your words, my son, do this and save yourself, since you have fallen into the hand of your neighbor; go and humble yourself and make your case before your neighbor.⋮

4 Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber.⋮

5 Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.⋮

6 Look at the ant, you lazy person, consider her ways, and be wise.⋮

7 It has no commander, officer, or ruler,⋮

8 yet it prepares its food in the summer and during the harvest it stores up what it will eat.⋮

9 How long will you sleep, you lazy person? When will you rise from your sleep?⋮

10 “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest”—⋮

11 and your poverty will come like a robber and your needs like an armed soldier.⋮

12 A worthless person—a wicked man— lives by the crookedness of his speech,⋮

13 winking his eyes, making signals with his feet and pointing with his fingers.⋮

14 He plots evil with deceit in his heart; he always stirs up discord.⋮

15 Therefore his disaster will overtake him in an instant; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.⋮

16 There are six things that Yahweh hates, seven that are disgusting to him.⋮

17 The eyes of a proud person, a tongue that lies, hands that shed the blood of innocent people,⋮

18 a heart that invents wicked schemes, feet that quickly run to do evil,⋮

19 a witness who breathes out lies and one who sows discord among brothers.⋮

20 My son, obey the command of your father and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.⋮

21 Always bind them on your heart; tie them about your neck.⋮

22 When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you wake up, they will teach you.⋮

23 For the commands are a lamp, and the teaching is a light; the corrections that come by instruction are the way of life.⋮

24 It keeps you from the immoral woman, from the smooth words of an immoral woman.⋮

25 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes.⋮

26 Sleeping with a prostitute can cost the price of a loaf of bread, but the wife of another may cost you your very life.⋮

27 Can a man carry a fire against his chest without burning his clothes?⋮

28 Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?⋮

29 So is the man who sleeps with his neighbor's wife; the one who sleeps with her will not go unpunished.⋮

30 People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his need when he is hungry.⋮

31 Yet if he is caught, he will pay back seven times what he stole; he must give up everything of value in his house.⋮

32 The one who commits adultery has no sense; the one who does it destroys himself.⋮

33 Wounds and shame are what he deserves and his disgrace will not be wiped away.⋮

34 For jealousy makes a man furious; he will show no mercy when he takes his revenge.⋮

35 He will accept no compensation and he cannot be bought off, though you offer him many gifts.⋮