Proverbs Chapter Six

1: My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with 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, deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.

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 guide, 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 one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.

12: A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

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

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

15: Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

16: These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

17: A proud look, 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 speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

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

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

22: When thou goest, 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 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 tongue of a strange woman.

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

26: For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.

27: Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

28: Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

29: So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

30: Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

31: But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

32: But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

33: A wound and shonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

34: For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

35: He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.