Chapter 6

¹My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor or pledge yourself for a stranger,

²you are trapped by the words of your mouth, caught by the promises you made.

³Do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor.

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Free yourself like a gazelle from a hunter, like a bird from a trapper’s hand.

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard; observe its ways and gain wisdom.

⁷Though it has no commander, no overseer or ruler,

⁸it prepares its food in summer and gathers its provisions in harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and scarcity like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth.

¹³He winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, and gestures with his fingers.

¹⁴Perversity is in his heart; he devises evil continually and sows discord.

¹⁵Therefore, his calamity will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken beyond healing.

¹⁶There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that hasten to run to evil,

¹⁹a false witness who pours out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them always on your heart; tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

²³For the command is a lamp, and the teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her captivate you with her her eyes.

²⁶For on account of a prostitute, a man is brought to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for a precious life.

²⁷Can a man carry fire in his lap and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; whoever touches her will not go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.

³¹Yet if he is caught, he must repay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

³²But he who commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; he who does it destroys his own soul.

³³Wounds and dishonor he will find, and his shame will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will not accept any compensation, nor be appeased though you offer many gifts. Proverbs 7 The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 7 – VKJV