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Proverbs 6

Parental Counsel

1My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor,

Or have given a handshake for a stranger,

2If you have been ensnared by the words of your mouth,

Or caught by the words of your mouth,

3Then 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.

4Give no sleep to your eyes,

Nor slumber to your eyelids;

5Save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand,

And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6Go to the ant, you lazy one,

Observe its ways and be wise,

7Which, having no chief,

Officer, or ruler,

8Prepares its food in the summer

And gathers its provision in the harvest.

9How 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,”

11Then your poverty will come in like a drifter,

And your need like an armed man.

12A worthless person, a wicked man,

Is one who walks with a perverse mouth,

13Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet,

Who points with his fingers;

14Who, with perversion in his heart, continually devises evil,

Who spreads strife.

15Therefore his disaster will come suddenly;

Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.

16There are six things that the Lord hates,

Seven that are an abomination to Him:

17Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

And hands that shed innocent blood,

18A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that run rapidly to evil,

19A false witness who declares lies,

And one who spreads strife among brothers.

20My son, comply with the commandment of your father,

And do not ignore the teaching of your mother;

21Bind them continually on your heart;

Tie them around your neck.

22When you walk, they will guide you;

When you sleep, they will watch over you;

And when you awake, they will talk to you.

23For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light;

And rebukes for discipline are the way of life

24To keep you from the evil woman,

From the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.

25Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

Nor let her capture you with her eyelids.

26For the price of a prostitute reduces one to a loaf of bread,

And an adulteress hunts for a precious life.

27Can anyone take fire in his lap

And his clothes not be burned?

28Or can a person walk on hot coals

And his feet not be scorched?

29So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.

30People do not despise a thief if he steals

To satisfy himself when he is hungry;

31But when he is found, he must repay seven times as much;

He must give up all the property of his house.

32One who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense;

He who would destroy himself commits it.

33He will find wounds and disgrace,

And his shame will not be removed.

34For jealousy enrages a man,

And he will not have compassion on the day of vengeance.

35He will not accept any settlement,

Nor will he be satisfied though you make it a large gift.

Proverbs

Chapter 6

6 of 31