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Practical Admonitions

My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor,
    if you have bound yourself to another,[a](A)
you are snared by the utterance of your lips,[b]
    caught by the words of your mouth.
So do this, my child, and save yourself,
    for you have come into your neighbor’s power:
    go, hurry,[c] and plead with your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep
    and your eyelids no slumber;(B)
save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,[d]
    like a bird from the hand of the fowler.(C)

Go to the ant, you lazybones;
    consider its ways and be wise.(D)
Without having any chief
    or officer or ruler,
it prepares its food in summer
    and gathers its sustenance in harvest.(E)
How long will you lie there, O lazybones?
    When will you rise from your sleep?(F)
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.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 6.1 Or a stranger
  2. 6.2 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb the words of your mouth
  3. 6.3 Or humble yourself
  4. 6.5 Cn: Heb from the hand