Proverbs 6

Lessons for Daily Life ¹My child, Hebrew My son. if you have put up security for a friend’s debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger— ² if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said— ³ follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased. ⁴ Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do. ⁵ Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net.

⁶Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! ⁷ Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, ⁸ they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. ⁹ But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? ¹⁰ A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— ¹¹ then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

¹²What are worthless and wicked people like? They are constant liars, ¹³ signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye, a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers. ¹⁴ Their perverted hearts plot evil, and they constantly stir up trouble. ¹⁵ But they will be destroyed suddenly, broken in an instant beyond all hope of healing.

¹⁶There are six things the LORD hates— no, seven things he detests: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, ¹⁸ a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, ¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.

²⁰My son, obey your father’s commands, and don’t neglect your mother’s instruction. ²¹ Keep their words always in your heart. Tie them around your neck. ²² When you walk, their counsel will lead you. When you sleep, they will protect you. When you wake up, they will advise you. ²³ For their command is a lamp and their instruction a light; their corrective discipline is the way to life. ²⁴ It will keep you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of a promiscuous woman. ²⁵ Don’t lust for her beauty. Don’t let her coy glances seduce you. ²⁶ For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, Hebrew to a loaf of bread. but sleeping with another man’s wife will cost you your life. ²⁷ Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire? ²⁸ Can he walk on hot coals and not blister his feet? ²⁹ So it is with the man who sleeps with another man’s wife. He who embraces her will not go unpunished.

³⁰Excuses might be found for a thief who steals because he is starving. ³¹ But if he is caught, he must pay back seven times what he stole, even if he has to sell everything in his house. ³² But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool, for he destroys himself. ³³ He will be wounded and disgraced. His shame will never be erased. ³⁴ For the woman’s jealous husband will be furious, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. ³⁵ He will accept no compensation, nor be satisfied with a payoff of any size.