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6. Warnings Against Folly

¹ My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
   if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
² you have been trapped by what you said,
   ensnared by the words of your mouth.
³ So do this, my son, to free yourself,
   since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go—to the point of exhaustion— Or Go and humble yourself,
   and give your neighbor no rest!
⁴ Allow no sleep to your eyes,
   no slumber to your eyelids.
⁵ Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
   like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

    ⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard;
   consider its ways and be wise!
⁷ It has no commander,
   no overseer or ruler,
⁸ yet it stores its provisions in summer
   and gathers its food at harvest.

    ⁹ How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
   When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
   a little folding of the hands to rest—
¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a thief
   and scarcity like an armed man.

    ¹² A troublemaker and a villain,
   who goes about with a corrupt mouth,
    ¹³ who winks maliciously with his eye,
   signals with his feet
   and motions with his fingers,
    ¹⁴ who plots evil with deceit in his heart—
   he always stirs up conflict.
¹⁵ Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant;
   he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.

    ¹⁶ There are six things the LORD hates,
   seven that are detestable to him:
       ¹⁷ haughty eyes,
      a lying tongue,
      hands that shed innocent blood,
       ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes,
      feet that are quick to rush into evil,
       ¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies
      and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Warning Against Adultery

    ²⁰ My son, keep your father’s command
   and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them always on your heart;
   fasten them around your neck.
²² When you walk, they will guide you;
   when you sleep, they will watch over you;
   when you awake, they will speak to you.
²³ For this command is a lamp,
   this teaching is a light,
and correction and instruction
   are the way to life,
²⁴ keeping you from your neighbor’s wife,
   from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.

²⁵ Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyes.

    ²⁶ For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread,
   but another man’s wife preys on your very life.
²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his lap
   without his clothes being burned?
²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals
   without his feet being scorched?
²⁹ So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife;
   no one who touches her will go unpunished.

    ³⁰ People do not despise a thief if he steals
   to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
³¹ Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
   though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
³² But a man who commits adultery has no sense;
   whoever does so destroys himself.
³³ Blows and disgrace are his lot,
   and his shame will never be wiped away.

    ³⁴ For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
   and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
³⁵ He will not accept any compensation;
   he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.