Proverbs
6
- My son, if you have put up security for
your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another,
- if you have been trapped by what you said,
ensnared by the words of your mouth,
- then do this, my son, to free yourself,
since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands: Go and humble yourself;
press your plea with your neighbor !
- Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber
to your eyelids.
- Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand
of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
- Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its
ways and be wise !
- It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,
- yet it stores its provisions in summer and
gathers its food at harvest.
- How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep ?
- A little sleep, a little slumber, a little
folding of the hands to rest --
- and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man.
- A scoundrel and villain, who goes about
with a corrupt mouth,
- who winks with his eye, signals with his
feet and motions with his fingers,
- who plots evil with deceit in his heart--he
always stirs up dissension.
- Therefore disaster will overtake him in
an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed -- without remedy.
- There are six things the LORD hates, seven
that are detestable to him:
- haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that
shed innocent blood,
- a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet
that are quick to rush into evil,
- a false witness who pours out lies and a
man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
- My son, keep your father's commands and
do not forsake your mother's teaching.
- Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten
them around your neck.
- When you walk, they will guide you; when
you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.
- For these commands are a lamp, this teaching
is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life,
- keeping you from the immoral woman, from
the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.
- Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyes,
- for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf
of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.
- Can a man scoop fire into his lap without
his clothes being burned ?
- Can a man walk on hot coals without his
feet being scorched ?
- So is he who sleeps with another man's wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.
- Men do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
- Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
- But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment;
whoever does so destroys himself.
- Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his
shame will never be wiped away;
- for jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and
he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
- He will not accept any compensation; he
will refuse the bribe, however great it is.
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