Proverbs

My son, if you have become a surety for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge with a stranger,

You are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth.

Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your friend; go, humble yourself, and plead with your friend.

Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.

Deliver yourself like a roe from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

Which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

Provides her bread in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.

How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

So shall your poverty come like a traveller, and your lack like an armed man.

A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth.

He winks with his eyes, he signals with his feet, he teaches with his fingers;

Perverseness is in his heart, he devises mischief continually; he sows discord.

Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

These six things the LORD hates; yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

A false witness who speaks lies, and him that sows discord among brothers.

My son, keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake the law of your mother:

Bind them continually upon your heart, and tie them about your neck.

When you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you; and when you awake, it shall talk with you.

For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

To keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

Do not lust after her beauty in your heart; neither let her take you with her eyelids.

For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.

Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?

So is he who goes in to his neighbour's wife; whoever touches her shall not be innocent.

Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

But if he is found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

But whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding: he that does it destroys his own soul.

A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.