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Practical Admonitions

My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor,
    have given your pledge for a stranger;
if you are snared in the utterance of your lips,[a]
    caught in the words of your mouth;
then do this, my son, and save yourself,
    for you have come into your neighbor’s power:
    go, hasten,[b] and importune your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep
    and your eyelids no slumber;
save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,[c]
    like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Go to the ant, O sluggard;
    consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief,
    officer or ruler,
she prepares her food in summer,
    and gathers her sustenance in harvest.
How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
    When will you arise 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 vagabond,
    and want like an armed man.

12 A worthless person, a wicked man,
    goes about with crooked speech,
13 winks with his eyes, scrapes[d] with his feet,
    points with his finger,
14 with perverted heart devises evil,
    continually sowing discord;
15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
    in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

16 There are six things which the Lord hates,
    seven which 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 make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies,
    and a man who sows discord among brothers.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:2 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb the words of your mouth
  2. Proverbs 6:3 Or humble yourself
  3. Proverbs 6:5 Cn: Heb hand
  4. Proverbs 6:13 Or taps

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