6 My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor,
    if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,
² you are trapped by the words of your mouth;
    you are ensnared with the words of your mouth.
³ Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself,
    since you have come into the hand of your neighbor.
Go, humble yourself.
    Press your plea with your neighbor.
⁴ Give no sleep to your eyes,
    nor slumber to your eyelids.
⁵ Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
    like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard.
    Consider her ways, and be wise;
⁷ which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,
⁸     provides her bread in the summer,
    and gathers her food in the harvest.
⁹ How long will you sleep, sluggard?
    When will you arise out of your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to sleep—
¹¹ so your poverty will come as a robber,
    and your scarcity as an armed man.

¹² A worthless person, a man of iniquity,
    is he who walks with a perverse mouth,
¹³ who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet,
    who motions with his fingers,
¹⁴ in whose heart is perverseness,
    who devises evil continually,
    who always sows discord.
¹⁵ Therefore his calamity will come suddenly.
    He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

¹⁶ There are six things which Yahweh hates;
    yes, seven which are an abomination to him:
¹⁷ arrogant eyes, a lying tongue,
    hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes,
    feet that are swift in running to mischief,
¹⁹ a false witness who utters lies,
    and he who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment,
    and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them continually on your heart.
    Tie them around your neck.
²² When you walk, it will lead you.
    When you sleep, it will watch over you.
    When you awake, it will talk with you.
²³ For the commandment is a lamp,
    and the law is light.
    Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
²⁴ to keep you from the immoral woman,
    from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.
²⁵ Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart,
    neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.
²⁶ For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread.
    The adulteress hunts for your precious life.
²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his lap,
    and his clothes not be burned?
²⁸ Or can one walk on hot coals,
    and his feet not be scorched?
²⁹ So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife.
    Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.
³⁰ Men don’t despise a thief
    if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry,
³¹ but if he is found, he shall restore seven times.
    He shall give all the wealth of his house.
³² He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding.
    He who does it destroys his own soul.
³³ He will get wounds and dishonor.
    His reproach will not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband.
    He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.
³⁵ He won’t regard any ransom,
    neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.