Proverbs 6

Proverbs 6 (New International Version)

Warnings Against Folly

 ¹ My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
       if you have struck hands in pledge for another,

 ² if you have been trapped by what you said,
       ensnared by the words of your mouth,

 ³ 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!

 ⁴ Allow no sleep to your eyes,
       no slumber to your eyelids.

 ⁵ Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
       like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

 ⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard;
       consider its ways and be wise!

 ⁷ It has no commander,
       no overseer or ruler,

 ⁸ yet it stores its provisions in summer
       and gathers its food at harvest.

 ⁹ How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
       When will you get up from your sleep?

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

 ¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a bandit
       and scarcity like an armed man. ^[a]

 ¹² A scoundrel and villain,
       who goes about with a corrupt mouth,

 ¹³ who winks with his eye,
       signals with his feet
       and motions with his fingers,

 ¹⁴ who plots evil with deceit in his heart—
       he always stirs up dissension.

 ¹⁵ Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant;
       he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.

 ¹⁶ There are six things the LORD hates,
       seven that are detestable to him:

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

 ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes,
       feet that are quick to rush into evil,

 ¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies
       and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Warning Against Adultery

 ²⁰ My son, keep your father's commands
       and do not forsake your mother's teaching.

 ²¹ Bind them upon your heart forever;
       fasten them around your neck.

 ²² When you walk, they will guide you;
       when you sleep, they will watch over you;
       when you awake, they will speak to you.

 ²³ For these commands are a lamp,
       this teaching is a light,
       and the corrections of discipline
       are the way to life,

 ²⁴ keeping you from the immoral woman,
       from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.

 ²⁵ Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
       or let her captivate you with her eyes,

 ²⁶ for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread,
       and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

 ²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his lap
       without his clothes being burned?

 ²⁸ Can a man walk on hot coals
       without his feet being scorched?

 ²⁹ So is he who sleeps with another man's wife;
       no one who touches her will go unpunished.

 ³⁰ Men do not despise a thief if he steals
       to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.

 ³¹ Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
       though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

 ³² But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment;
       whoever does so destroys himself.

 ³³ Blows and disgrace are his lot,
       and his shame will never be wiped away;

 ³⁴ for jealousy arouses a husband's fury,
       and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

 ³⁵ He will not accept any compensation;
       he will refuse the bribe, however great it is.

Footnotes:

1. Proverbs 6:11 Or like a vagrant / and scarcity like a beggar