NET Bible

Admonitions and Warnings against Dangerous and Destructive Acts1

^6:1 My child, if you have made a pledge for your neighbor, if you 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 her ways and be wise! ^6:7 It has no commander, overseer, or ruler, ^6:8 yet it would prepare its food in the summer; it gathered 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 sleeps 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 sense; 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.