✧My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, [if] thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, ✧2Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. ✧3Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. ✧4Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. ✧5Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand [of the hunter], and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. ✧6Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: ✧7Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, ✧8Provideth her meat in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest. ✧9How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? ✧10[Yet] a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: ✧11So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. ✧12A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. ✧13He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; ✧14Frowardness [is] in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord. ✧15Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. ✧16These six [things] doth the LORD hate: yea, seven [are] an abomination unto him: ✧17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, ✧18An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, ✧19A false witness [that] speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. ✧20My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: ✧21Bind them continually upon thine heart, [and] tie them about thy neck. ✧22When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and [when] thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. ✧23For the commandment [is] a lamp; and the law [is] light; and reproofs of instruction [are] the way of life: ✧24To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. ✧25Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. ✧26For by means of a whorish woman [a man is brought] to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. ✧27Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? ✧28Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? ✧29So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. ✧30[Men] do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; ✧31But [if] he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house. ✧32[But] whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he [that] doeth it destroyeth his own soul. ✧33A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away. ✧34For jealousy [is] the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. ✧35He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.