Proverbs 6:1-23 ▼

1 My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor, if you have bound yourself to another,

2 you are snared by the utterance of your lips, caught by the words of your mouth.

3 So do this, my child, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor’s power: go, hurry, and plead with your neighbor.

4 Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;

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

6 Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.

7 Without having any chief or officer or ruler,

8 it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest.

9 How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise from your sleep?

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

11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior.

12 A scoundrel and a villain goes around with crooked speech,

13 winking the eyes, shuffling the feet, pointing the fingers,

14 with perverted mind devising evil, continually sowing discord;

15 on such a one calamity will descend suddenly; in a moment, damage beyond repair.

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

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

18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil,

19 a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family.

20 My child, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

21 Bind them upon your heart always; tie them around your neck.

22 When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.

23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,