1 My son, if you have stood bail for your neighbor or guaranteed the word of a stranger;
2 if you have committed yourself with your own lips, know that you have trapped yourself with your own words.
3 Then do this, my son: release yourself. If you have fallen into the hands of your neighbor, go speedily, kneel down and plead with him;
4 do not give sleep to your eyes or rest to your eyelids.
5 Break free, like a gazelle from the trap or a bird from the hand.
The idlers and the fools
6 You idler, go to the ant, watch her ways and be wise.
7 She has no master, no steward or overseer.
8 She secures food in summer and stores up provisions during harvest time.
9 How long, you idler, are you going to lie around? When do you intend to rise from sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little drow siness and your laziness creeps upon you and then, like a tramp,
11 poverty comes, bringing misery like a vagabond.
12 The villain, the unjust man, goes about with a sneer on his lips,
13 winking his eye, shuffling his feet and beckoning with his finger.
14 His heart is deceitful; he is forever plotting evil and causing arguments.
15 Therefore, disaster will suddenly and irrevocably overtake him.
16 There are six things Yahweh hates; seven his inner being detests:
17 the proud look, the lying tongue, hands which spill innocent blood,
18 the depraved heart, feet which speed towards evil,
19 a false and lying witness and the one who sows discord among people.
20 My son, respect your father’s in struction and do not reject your mother’s teaching.
21 Hold them forever in your heart and hang them around your neck.
22 These will guard your footsteps, protect you when you sleep and speak to you on waking.
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light; correction teaches you the way of life.
24 It will protect you from the evil wo man, the smooth talking of the stranger.
25 Do not covet her beauty in your heart or let her captivate you with her looks.
26 For the prostitute deserves a piece of bread but the adulteress hunts after your worthy life.
27 Can you hold fire in your pocket without setting fire to your clothes or
28 walk on hot coals without burning your feet?
29 So it is for the man who ap proaches his neighbor’s wife: all who touch her will be punished.
30 One does not condemn the hungry thief who steals to fill his stomach;
31 nevertheless, if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold and give all the goods in his house.
32 How senseless is the adulterer! Whoever commits adultery destroys him self.
33 He will reap blows and contempt and his disgrace will not be erased.
34 Jealousy inflames the hus band’s heart and when he can take revenge he will have no mercy.
35 He will accept nothing, neither reparation nor lavish gifts.
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Comments Proverbs, Chapter 6
• 6.1 Here we have all kinds of advice.
6:1-5. A person who is responsible, however generous and obliging he may be, always thinks before committing himself.
6:9-11. Being lazy about getting up: see also 26:14.
Following this passage, there is a long discourse on the consequences of adultery which is accompanied by a life of lies and slavery.