Proverbs 6:1-25 ▼

1 My son, if thou becamest surety for thy friend, thou didst strike thy hands for a stranger;

2 Thou wert snared with the sayings of thy mouth, thou wert taken with the sayings of thy mouth.

3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself when thou camest into the hand of thy friend; go humble thyself and enlarge thy friend.

4 Thou shalt not give sleep to thine eyes, and slumber to thine eyelashes.

5 Deliver thyself as the roe from the hand, and as the bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, thou slothful one; see her ways, and be wise:

7 Which no leader to her, scribe and ruler;

8 She will prepare in summer her bread, gathering her food in harvest.

9 How long, O slothful one, wilt thou lie down? when wilt thou rise from thy sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to lie down:

11 And thy poverty came as he going, and thy want as a man of the shield.

12 A man of Belial, a man of iniquity, goes with perverseness of mouth.

13 Pinching the eyes, speaking with the feet, teaching with his fingers;

14 Perverseness in his heart, fabricating evil in all time, he will send forth strifes.

15 For this, his destruction shall come suddenly; in a moment he shall be broken, and none healing.

16 These six Jehovah hated, and seven an abomination of his soul:

17 Eyes being lifted up; a tongue of falsehood, and hands shedding innocent blood,

18 A heart fabricating purposes of iniquity; feet being quick to run to evil,

19 A witness of falsehood, breathing out lies, and sending strife between brethren.

20 My son, watch the commands of thy father, and thou shalt not reject the laws of thy mother:

21 Tie them always upon thy heart; bind them upon thy throat.

22 In thy going about it shall lead thee; in thy lying down it shall watch over thee; and awaking, it shall speak to thee.

23 For the command is a lamp, and the law a light; and the way of life the reproof of instruction:

24 To watch thee from the woman of evil, from the smoothness of the strange tongue.

25 Thou shalt not desire her beauty in thy heart, and she shall not take thee with her eyelashes.