• Parental Counsel

  • 1 My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor, Or have given a handshake for a stranger,
  • 2 If you have been ensnared by the words of your mouth, Or caught by the words of your mouth,
  • 3 Then do this, my son, and save yourself: Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and be urgent with your neighbor to free yourself.
  • 4 Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids;
  • 5 Save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand, And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
  • 6 Go to the ant, you lazy one, Observe its ways and be wise,
  • 7 Which, having no chief, Officer, or ruler,
  • 8 Prepares its food in the summer And gathers its provision in the harvest.
  • 9 How long will you lie down, you lazy one? When will you arise from your sleep?
  • 10 “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,”
  • 11 Then your poverty will come in like a drifter, And your need like an armed man.
  • 12 A worthless person, a wicked man, Is 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 perversion in his heart, continually devises evil, Who spreads strife.
  • 15 Therefore his disaster will come suddenly; Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.
  • 16 There are six things that the Lord hates, Seven that are an abomination to Him:
  • 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood,
  • 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,
  • 19 A false witness who declares lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.
  • 20 My son, comply with the commandment of your father, And do not ignore the teaching of your mother;
  • 21 Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them around your neck.
  • 22 When you walk, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you.
  • 23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And rebukes 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 the price of a prostitute reduces one to a loaf of bread, And an adulteress hunts for a precious life.
  • 27 Can anyone take fire in his lap And his clothes not be burned?
  • 28 Or can a person 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 People do not despise a thief if he steals To satisfy himself when he is hungry;
  • 31 But when he is found, he must repay seven times as much; He must give up all the property of his house.
  • 32 One who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself commits it.
  • 33 He will find wounds and disgrace, And his shame will not be removed.
  • 34 For jealousy enrages a man, And he will not have compassion on the day of vengeance.
  • 35 He will not accept any settlement, Nor will he be satisfied though you make it a large gift.