Free Yourself from a Pledge
1My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for a stranger, 2you are snared by the words of your mouth, caught by the words of your mouth. 3Do this, then, my son, and free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: go, humble yourself, and press your neighbor hard. 4Give no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. 5Free yourself like a gazelle from the hand, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Go to the Ant
6Go to the ant, you sluggard; look at its ways and be wise. 7It has no commander, no officer or ruler, 8yet it prepares its food in summer and gathers its provisions at harvest. 9How long, sluggard, will you lie there? When will you get up from your sleep? 10A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down— 11and your poverty will come on you like a prowler, and your want like an armed man. 12A worthless person, a man of wickedness, goes about with a crooked mouth, 13winking his eyes, shuffling his feet, pointing with his fingers; 14with twistedness in his heart he plots evil at all times; he sows strife. 15Therefore his disaster will come suddenly; in an instant he will be broken, beyond healing.
Seven Things Yahweh Hates
16There are six things Yahweh hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; 18a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that hurry to run to evil; 19a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows strife among brothers.
Adultery Burns
20Keep, my son, your father’s commandment, and do not cast off your mother’s teaching. 21Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. 22When you walk, it will lead you; when you lie down, it will watch over you; and when you wake, it will speak to you. 23For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 24to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the foreign woman. 25Do not covet her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; 26for on account of a prostitute a man is brought down to a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life. 27Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? 28Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? 29So it is with the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife: no one who touches her will go unpunished. 30People do not despise a thief for stealing to fill his belly when he is hungry; 31yet if he is caught, he must pay back sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house. 32Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks sense; whoever does it destroys himself. 33Blows and shame he will find, and his disgrace will never be wiped away; 34for jealousy is a husband’s fury, and he will show no pity on the day of vengeance. 35He will not accept any ransom; he will not be appeased, though you pile up the bribes.
