Proverbs 6:1-25 ▼

1 My son, if thou art become surety for thy neighbour, if thou hast stricken thy hands 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, seeing thou art come into the hand of thy neighbour; go, humble thyself, and importune thy neighbour.

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

5 Deliver thyself as a roe 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 meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

9 How 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:

11 So shall thy poverty come as a robber, and thy want as an armed man.

12 A worthless person, a man of iniquity; he walketh with a froward mouth;

13 He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he maketh signs with his fingers;

14 Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth evil continually; he soweth discord.

15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; on a sudden shall he be broken and that without remedy.

16 There be six things which the LORD hateth; yea, seven which are an abomination unto him:

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

18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief;

19 A false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

20 My son, keep the commandment of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, tie them about thy neck.

22 When thou walkest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall watch over thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

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

24 To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the stranger's tongue.

25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.