• Practical Warnings

  • 1 My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor, Have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,
  • 2 If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, Have been caught with the words of your mouth,
  • 3 Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and badger your neighbor.
  • 4 Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids;
  • 5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
  • 6 Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise,
  • 7 Which, having no chief, Officer or ruler,
  • 8 Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest.
  • 9 How 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”—
  • 11 Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your want like an armed man.
  • 12 A vile person, a wicked man, Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth,
  • 13 Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, Who points with his fingers;
  • 14 Who with perversity in his heart continually devises evil, Who spreads contentions.
  • 15 Therefore his disaster will come suddenly; Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.
  • 16 There are six things which Yahweh hates, Even 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 thoughts, Feet that hasten to run to evil,
  • 19 A false witness who breathes out lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.

  • Warning Against Adultery

  • 20 My son, observe the commandment of your father And do not abandon the law of your mother;
  • 21 Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them around your neck.
  • 22 When 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.
  • 23 For the commandment is a lamp and the law is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life
  • 24 To keep you from the evil woman, From the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.
  • 25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, Nor let her capture you with her eyelids.
  • 26 For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, And an adulteress hunts for the precious life.
  • 27 Can a man take fire in his bosom And his clothes not be burned?
  • 28 Or can a man walk on hot coals And his feet not be scorched?
  • 29 So 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;
  • 31 But when he is found, he must repay sevenfold; He must give all the substance of his house.
  • 32 The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking a heart of wisdom; He who would destroy his soul does it.
  • 33 Wounds and disgrace he will find, And his reproach will not be blotted out.
  • 34 For jealousy enrages a man, And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
  • 35 He will not accept any ransom, He will not be willing though you give many bribes.