1My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, If you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;
2You are snared with the words of your mouth, You are taken with the words of your mouth.
3Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, Seeing you have come into the hand of your neighbor: Go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor;
4Do not give sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids;
5Deliver yourself as a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, And as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6Go to the ant, you sluggard; Consider her ways, and be wise:
7Which having no chief, Overseer, or ruler,
8Provides her bread in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest.
9How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?
10Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep:
11So your poverty shall come as a robber, And your want as an armed man.
12A worthless person, a man of iniquity, Is he who walks with a perverse mouth;
13Who winks with his eyes, who speaks with his feet, Who makes signs with his fingers;
14In whose heart is perverseness, Who devises evil continually, Who sows discord.
15Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; In an instant he shall be broken, and that without remedy.
16There are six things which Yehovah hates; Yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
17Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood;
18A heart that devises wicked purposes, Feet that are swift in running to evil,
19A false witness who utters lies, And he who sows discord among brothers.
20My son, keep the commandment of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother:
21Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them around your neck.
22When you walk, it shall lead you; When you sleep, it shall watch over you; And when you awake, it shall talk with you.
23For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; And reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
24To keep you from the evil woman, From the flattery of the foreigner’s tongue.
25Do not lust after her beauty in your heart; Nor let her take you with her eyelids.
26For on account of a prostitute a man is brought to a piece of bread; And the adulteress hunts for the precious life.
27Can a man take fire in his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?
28Or can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be scorched?
29So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her shall not be unpunished.
30Men do not despise a thief, if he steals To satisfy himself when he is hungry:
31But if he is found, he shall restore sevenfold; He shall give all the goods of his house.
32He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding: He who would destroy his own soul does it.
33Wounds and dishonor he shall get; And his reproach shall not be wiped away.
34For jealousy is the rage of a man; And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35He will not accept any ransom; Nor will he rest content, though you give many gifts.