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Warning Against Pledges

My son, if you put up a security for your friend,
    if you have shaken hands with a stranger,
you are snared with the words of your mouth;
    you are taken with the words of your mouth.
Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself;
    when you have come into the hand of your friend,
go and humble yourself;
    plead with your friend.
Give no sleep to your eyes,
    nor slumber to your eyelids.
Deliver yourself as a doe from the hand of the hunter,
    and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

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My son, if thou be surety for thy friend,
if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
thou art snared with the words of thy mouth,
thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself,
when thou art come into the hand of thy friend;
go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
Give not sleep to thine eyes,
nor slumber to thine eyelids.
Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter,
and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

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Warnings Against Folly

My son,(A) if you have put up security(B) for your neighbor,(C)
    if you have shaken hands in pledge(D) for a stranger,
you have been trapped by what you said,
    ensnared by the words of your mouth.
So do this, my son, to free yourself,
    since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go—to the point of exhaustion—[a]
    and give your neighbor no rest!
Allow no sleep to your eyes,
    no slumber to your eyelids.(E)
Free yourself, like a gazelle(F) from the hand of the hunter,(G)
    like a bird from the snare of the fowler.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:3 Or Go and humble yourself,

17 A friend loves at all times,
    and a brother is born for adversity.

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17 A friend loveth at all times,
    and a brother is born for adversity.

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17 A friend loves at all times,
    and a brother is born for a time of adversity.(A)

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Saying Twenty-Five

10 If you faint in the day of adversity,
    your strength is small.

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10 If thou faint in the day of adversity,
thy strength is small.

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Saying 25

10 If you falter in a time of trouble,
    how small is your strength!(A)

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10 Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend,
    nor go into your brother’s house in the day of your calamity;
    for better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far off.

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10 Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not;
neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity:
for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.

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10 Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family,
    and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster(A) strikes you—
    better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.

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