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[1] My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor,
have given your pledge for a stranger;
[2] if you are snared in the utterance of your lips,
caught in the words of your mouth;
[3] then do this, my son, and save yourself,
for you have come into your neighbor’s power:
go, hasten, and importune your neighbor.
[4] Give your eyes no sleep
and your eyelids no slumber;
[5] save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,
like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
[6] Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
[7] Without having any chief,
officer or ruler,
[8] she prepares her food in summer,
and gathers her sustenance in harvest.
[9] How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
[10] A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
[11] and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond,
and want like an armed man.
[12] A worthless person, a wicked man,
goes about with crooked speech,
[13] winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet,
points with his finger,
[14] with perverted heart devises evil,
continually sowing discord;
[15] therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.
[16] There are six things which the LORD hates,
seven which are an abomination to him:
[17] haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
[18] a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
[19] a false witness who breathes out lies,
and a man who sows discord among brothers.
[20] My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
[21] Bind them upon your heart always;
tie them about your neck.
[22] When you walk, they will lead you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
and when you awake, they will talk with you.
[23] For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
[24] to preserve you from the evil woman,
from the smooth tongue of the adventuress.
[25] Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
[26] for a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread,
but an adulteress stalks a man’s very life.
[27] Can a man carry fire in his bosom
and his clothes not be burned?
[28] Or can one walk upon hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?
[29] So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
none who touches her will go unpunished.
[30] Do not men despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry?
[31] And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;
he will give all the goods of his house.
[32] He who commits adultery has no sense;
he who does it destroys himself.
[33] Wounds and dishonor will he get,
and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
[34] For jealousy makes a man furious,
and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
[35] He will accept no compensation,
nor be appeased though you multiply gifts.
The Book of Proverbs is provided for non-commercial purposes by the University of Pennsylvania Center for Computer Analysis of Texts. Licensing information can be found here.
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