✧My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger, ✧2if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth, ✧3then do this, my son, to free yourself, for you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go, humble yourself, and press your plea with your neighbor. ✧4Allow no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids. ✧5Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. ✧6Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise. ✧7Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler, ✧8it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food at harvest. ✧9How long will you lie there, O slacker? When will you get up from your sleep? ✧10A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, ✧11and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit. ✧12A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth, ✧13winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers. ✧14With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord. ✧15Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in an instant he will be shattered beyond recovery. ✧16There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him: ✧17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, ✧18a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil, ✧19a false witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up discord among brothers. ✧20My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. ✧21Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck. ✧22When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. ✧23For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life, ✧24to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. ✧25Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. ✧26For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. ✧27Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned? ✧28Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet? ✧29So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. ✧30Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger. ✧31Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house. ✧32He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. ✧33Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away. ✧34For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance. ✧35He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.