Proverbs 6

1My son, if you have guaranteed a loan for your neighbor and shaken hands on it for a stranger, 2the words of your mouth have snared you; what you said has caught you. 3So, my son, do this and get yourself free, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s power: go and humble yourself, and keep pressing your neighbor. 4Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no rest. 5Get yourself free like a gazelle from the hunter’s grip, like a bird from the hand of the one who traps it.

6You lazy one, go and look at the ant; watch how it lives, and learn wisdom. 7It has no chief, no overseer and no ruler, 8yet it gets its food ready in summer and gathers its supplies at harvest time. 9Lazy one, how long will you stay lying there? When will you rise from sleeping? 10“A bit more sleep, a bit more dozing, a bit more lying with arms folded,” 11and poverty will be on you like a drifter on the road, and need like a man with a shield.

12A scoundrel, a troublemaker, goes about with twisted speech, 13winking with the eye, shuffling the feet, signaling with the fingers, 14with a heart full of deceit, always planning harm and stirring up quarrels. 15So disaster will come on such a person suddenly, and in a moment break them beyond healing.

16Six things the LORD hates, and seven he detests with his whole being: 17eyes that look down on others, a tongue that tells lies, hands that spill innocent blood, 18a heart that works out wicked plans, feet in a hurry to run to evil, 19a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows quarrels among brothers and sisters.

20My son, hold on to your father’s command and do not let go of what your mother teaches you. 21Keep them tied to your heart at all times; wear them knotted around your neck. 22As you walk, it will lead you; as you lie down, it will keep watch over you; and when you wake, it will talk with you. 23For a command is a lamp and teaching is a light, and the warnings that discipline brings are the road to life, 24to guard you from the evil woman and the smooth tongue of the outsider. 25Do not let your heart crave her beauty, and do not let her catch you with her glances, 26For a prostitute’s price may be only a loaf of bread, but a married woman stalks a man’s whole life.

27Can a man carry fire against his chest and not set his clothes alight? 28Or can a man walk over live coals and his feet not be burned? 29It is the same with the man who sleeps with his neighbor’s wife: anyone who touches her will pay for it. 30People do not despise a thief who steals to fill an empty stomach when he is starving, 31yet if he is caught he must pay back seven times over, even if it takes everything in his house. 32But a man who commits adultery has no sense; only someone bent on destroying himself would do it. 33Blows and disgrace will be his, and his shame will never be erased. 34For jealousy makes a husband furious, and when the day of revenge comes he will not hold back. 35He will accept no payment to settle it, and no gift, however large, will satisfy him.