NETtext - Proverbs - 6

6:1  My child, if you have made a pledge for your neighbor, and have become a guarantor for a stranger,

6:2  if you have been ensnared by the words you have uttered, and have been caught by the words you have spoken,

6:3  then, my child, do this in order to deliver yourself, because you have fallen into your neighbor's power: go, humble yourself, and appeal firmly to your neighbor.

6:4  Permit no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.

6:5  Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare, and like a bird from the trap of the fowler.

6:6  Go to the ant, you sluggard; observe its ways and be wise!

6:7  It has no commander, overseer, or ruler,

6:8  yet it prepares its food in the summer; it gathers at the harvest what it will eat.

6:9  How long, you sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from your sleep?

6:10  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to relax,

6:11  and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man.

6:12  A worthless and wicked person walks around saying perverse things;

6:13  he winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, and points with his fingers;

6:14  he plots evil with perverse thoughts in his heart, he spreads contention at all times.

6:15  Therefore, his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.

6:16  There are six things that the LORD hates, even seven things that are an abomination to him:

6:17  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

6:18  a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift to run to evil,

6:19  a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who spreads discord among family members.

6:20  My child, guard the commands of your father and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.

6:21  Bind them on your heart continually; fasten them around your neck.

6:22  When you walk about, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will talk to you.

6:23  For the commandments are like a lamp, instruction is like a light, and rebukes of discipline are like the road leading to life,

6:24  by keeping you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the loose woman.

6:25  Do not lust in your heart for her beauty, and do not let her captivate you with her alluring eyes;

6:26  for on account of a prostitute one is brought down to a loaf of bread, but the wife of another man preys on your precious life.

6:27  Can a man hold fire against his chest without burning his clothes?

6:28  Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

6:29  So it is with the one who has sex with his neighbor's wife; no one who touches her will escape punishment.

6:30  People do not despise a thief when he steals to fulfill his need when he is hungry.

6:31  Yet if he is caught he must repay seven times over, he might even have to give all the wealth of his house.

6:32  A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks wisdom, whoever does it destroys his own life.

6:33  He will be beaten and despised, and his reproach will not be wiped away;

6:34  for jealousy kindles a husband's rage, and he will not show mercy when he takes revenge.

6:35  He will not consider any compensation; he will not be willing, even if you multiply the compensation.