Practical Warnings

1My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor,

Have struck your [†]hands in pledge for a stranger,

2If you have been snared with the words of your mouth,

Have been caught with the words of your mouth,

3Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself;

Since you have come into the [†]hand of your neighbor,

Go, humble yourself, and badger your neighbor.

4Give no sleep to your eyes,

Nor slumber to your eyelids;

5Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand

And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6Go to the ant, O sluggard,

Observe her ways and be wise,

7Which, having no chief,

Officer or ruler,

8Prepares her food in the summer

And gathers her provision in the harvest.

9How long will you lie down, O sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

10“A little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to [†]rest”—

11Your poverty will come in like [†]a vagabond

And your want like [†]an armed man.

12A vile person, a wicked man,

Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth,

13Who winks with his eyes, who [†]signals with his feet,

Who [†]points with his fingers;

14Who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil,

Who [†]spreads contentions.

15Therefore his disaster will come suddenly;

Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.

16There are six things which Yahweh hates,

Even seven which are an abomination [†]to Him:

17Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

And hands that shed innocent blood,

18A heart that devises wicked thoughts,

Feet that hasten to run to evil,

19A false witness who breathes out lies,

And one who [†]spreads strife among brothers.

Warning Against Adultery

20My son, observe the commandment of your father

And do not abandon the [†]law of your mother;

21Bind them continually on your heart;

Tie them around your neck.

22When you walk about, [†]they will lead you;

When you sleep, [†]they will keep watch over you;

And when you awake, [†]they will speak to you.

23For the commandment is a lamp and the [†]law is light;

And reproofs for 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,

Nor let her capture you with her eyelids.

26For on account of [†]a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread,

And [†]an adulteress hunts for the precious [†]life.

27Can a man [†]take fire in his bosom

And his clothes not be burned?

28Or can a man walk on hot coals

And his feet not be scorched?

29So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

Whoever touches her will not [†]go unpunished.

30[†]Men do not despise a thief if he steals

To fill [†]himself when he is hungry;

31But when he is found, he must repay sevenfold;

He must give all the [†]substance of his house.

32The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking a heart of wisdom;

He who would destroy his soul does it.

33Wounds and disgrace he will find,

And his reproach will not be blotted out.

34For jealousy [†]enrages a man,

And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

35He will not [†]accept any ransom,

He will not be willing though you give many bribes.