Practical Wisdom

¹My son, if you put up a security for your friend,

if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,

²you are snared by the words of your mouth;

you are taken by the words of your mouth.

³Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself;

since you have come into the hand of your friend,

go and humble yourself,

and plead with your friend.

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes,

nor slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,

and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard;[#Pr 10:26; 20:4]

consider her ways and be wise,

⁷which, having no guide,

overseer, or ruler,

⁸provides her food in the summer

and gathers her sustenance in the harvest.

⁹How long will you sleep, O sluggard?

When will you rise from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to sleep,

¹¹so shall your poverty come upon you like a thief,

and your want like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man,

walks with a perverse mouth.

¹³He winks with his eyes,[#Ps 35:19; Pr 10:10]

he signals with his feet,

he points with his fingers;

¹⁴perverseness is in his heart,

he devises evil continually, he sows discord.

¹⁵Therefore his calamity will come suddenly;

suddenly he will be broken without remedy.

¹⁶There are six things that the Lord hates,

seven are an abomination to Him:

²⁰My son, keep your father’s commandment,

and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

²¹Bind them continually on your heart;

tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will lead you;

when you sleep, they will keep you;

and when you awake, they will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light,[#Ps 19:8; 119:105]

and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴to keep you from the evil woman,

from the flattering tongue of an adulteress.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart[#Mt 5:28]

or let her take you with her eyes;

²⁶for the price of a prostitute leaves a man with a loaf of bread,[#Pr 29:3; #1Sa 2:36]

and an adulteress preys upon his precious life.

²⁷Can a man carry fire next to his bosom

without burning his clothes?

²⁸Can one walk on hot coals

without scorching his feet?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

whoever touches her will not be innocent.

³⁰Men do not despise a thief if he steals

to satisfy himself when he is hungry.

³¹Yet if he is found, he must repay sevenfold;

he must forfeit all the substance of his house.

³²But he who commits adultery lacks understanding;[#Pr 7:7, 22–23]

he who does it destroys his own soul.

³³Wounds and dishonor will he get,[#Pr 5:9–11]

and his reproach will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy enrages a man,[#Pr 27:4; SS 8:6]

and he will not spare on the day of vengeance.

³⁵He will accept no compensation;

he will not rest content though you offer many gifts.