6 My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor,
if you have agreed to a deal^[a] with a stranger,
² trapped by your own words,
    and caught by your own words,
³ then do this, my son, and deliver yourself,
    because you have come under your neighbor’s control.^[b]
Go, humble yourself!
    Plead passionately with your neighbor!
⁴ Don’t allow yourself to sleep
    or even to close your eyes.
⁵ Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a hunter’s hand,^[c]
    or like a bird from a fowler’s hand.

⁶ Go to the ant, you lazy man!
    Observe its ways and become wise.
⁷ It has no commander,
    officer, or ruler,
⁸ but prepares its provisions in the summer
    and gathers its food in the harvest.
⁹ How long will you lie down, lazy man?
    When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest,
¹¹ and your poverty will come on you like a bandit
    and your desperation like an armed man.

¹² A worthless man, a wicked man,
    goes around with devious speech,
¹³ winking with his eyes, making signs^[d] with^[e] his feet,
    pointing with his fingers,
¹⁴ planning evil with a perverse mind,^[f]
    continually stirring up discord.
¹⁵ Therefore, disaster will overtake him suddenly.
    He will be broken in an instant,
        and he will never recover.

¹⁶ Here are six things that the Lord hates—
    seven, in fact,^[g] are detestable to him:^[h]
17 Arrogant eyes,
    a lying tongue,
        and hands shedding innocent blood;
¹⁸ a heart crafting evil plans,
    feet running swiftly to wickedness,
¹⁹ a false witness snorting lies,
    and someone sowing quarrels between brothers.

²⁰ Keep your father’s commands, my son,
    and never forsake your mother’s rules,^[i]
21 by binding them to your heart continuously,
    fastening them around your neck.
²² During your travels wisdom^[j] will lead you;
    she will watch over you while you rest;
and when you are startled from your sleep,
    she will commune with you.
²³ Because the command is a lamp
    and the Law a light,
        rebukes that discipline are a way of life—
²⁴ to protect you from the evil^[k] woman,
    from the words of the seductive woman.