Proverbs 6:1-25 ▼

1 My son, if thou hast become surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand for a stranger,

2 thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, since thou hast come into the hand of thy friend: go, humble thyself, and be urgent with thy friend.

4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids:

5 deliver thyself as a gazelle from the hand [of the hunter], and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise:

7 which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

8 provideth her bread in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest.

9 How long, sluggard, wilt thou lie down? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest!

11 So shall thy poverty come as a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man.

12 A man of Belial, a wicked person, is he that goeth about with a perverse mouth;

13 he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

14 deceits are in his heart; he deviseth mischief at all times, he soweth discords.

15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly: in a moment shall he be broken, and without remedy.

16 These six [things] doth Jehovah hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood;

18 a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations; feet that are swift in running to mischief;

19 a false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discords among brethren.

20 My son, observe thy father's commandment, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;

21 bind them continually upon thy heart, tie them about thy neck:

22 when thou walkest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and [when] thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

24 to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

25 Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids;