Proverbs 6

1 “My son, if you give a guarantee for your friend, you will place your hand in an enemy’s hand.

2 A man’s own lips become a strong trap for him, and the lips of his own mouth catch him.

3 My son, do what I command and save yourself—for you have come into the hands of evil people because of your friend. Go without giving up, and rouse the friend for whom you gave the guarantee.

4 Give no sleep to your eyes or drowsiness to your eyelids,

5 so that you may save yourself like a gazelle from nets and like a bird from a trap.

6 Go to the ant, you lazy person. Observe and imitate its ways, and become wiser than it.

7 It has no farmland, no one to compel it, and no master over it,

8 yet it prepares its food in summer and lays up an abundant supply at harvest. Or go to the bee and learn how diligent she is and how nobly she performs her work. Kings and ordinary people use the fruit of her labors for health, and everyone desires and respects her. Though weak in strength, she has gained distinction by honoring wisdom.

9 How long will you lie there, you lazy person? When will you rise from sleep?

10 You sleep a little, sit a little, doze briefly, and fold your arms over your chest for a little while.

11 Then poverty arrives beside you like an evil traveler, and need like a swift runner. But if you are diligent, your harvest will come like a spring, and need will desert you like a bad runner.

12 A foolish and lawbreaking man travels roads that are not good.

13 He winks with his eye, signals with his foot, and gives instruction with motions of his fingers.

14 With a twisted heart he devises evil at every opportunity. Such a man brings disturbances upon a city.

15 Therefore his destruction comes suddenly: an incurable breaking and crushing.

16 Because he rejoices in everything the Lord hates, he is crushed through the impurity of his soul:

17 an arrogant eye, an unjust tongue, hands that shed righteous blood,

18 a heart that devises evil thoughts, and feet that hurry to do evil.

19 An unjust witness kindles lies and sends quarrels among brothers.

20 My son, keep your father’s laws, and do not reject your mother’s rules.

21 Fasten them on your soul continually and wear them like a chain around your neck.

22 Whenever you walk, lead this instruction along and let it be with you. When you sleep, let it guard you, so that when you rise it may converse with you.

23 For the command of the law is a lamp and a light, and correction and instruction are a road of life.

24 They preserve you from a married woman and from the slander of a foreign tongue.

25 Do not let desire for beauty conquer you. Do not be caught by your eyes or swept away by her eyelids.

26 The price of a prostitute is only one loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts for the precious lives of men.

27 Can anyone bind fire against his chest without burning his clothes?

28 Or can anyone walk on fiery coals without burning his feet?

29 So it is with the one who goes in to a married woman: neither he nor anyone who touches her will be acquitted.

30 It is not surprising if someone is caught stealing, for he steals to fill his soul when he is hungry.

31 But if he is caught, he will repay sevenfold and rescue himself by giving everything he owns.

32 The adulterer, lacking good sense, brings destruction upon his own soul.

33 He endures pain and dishonor, and his disgrace will never be wiped away.

34 For her husband’s anger is full of jealousy; he will not spare him on the day of judgment.

35 He will not exchange his hostility for any ransom or be reconciled by many gifts.”