Proverbs 6:1-15 ▼

1 My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor, if you have agreed to a deal with a stranger,

2 trapped by your own words, and caught by your own words,

3 then do this, my son, and deliver yourself, because you have come under your neighbor's control. Go, humble yourself! Plead passionately with your neighbor!

4 Don't allow yourself to sleep or even to close your eyes.

5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a hunter's hand, or like a bird from a fowler's hand.

6 Go to the ant, you lazy man! Observe its ways and become wise.

7 It has no commander, officer, or ruler,

8 but prepares its provisions in the summer and gathers its food in the harvest.

9 How long will you lie down, lazy man? 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 your poverty will come on you like a bandit and your desperation like an armed man.

12 A worthless man, a wicked man, goes around with devious speech,

13 winking with his eyes, making signs with his feet, pointing with his fingers,

14 planning evil with a perverse mind, continually stirring up discord.

15 Therefore, disaster will overtake him suddenly. He will be broken in an instant, and he will never recover.