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Eighth Address to a Son:
Wisdom Avoids Entanglements

My son, if you have guaranteed your neighbor’s debts,
if you have shaken hands for a stranger,
you are trapped by the promises from your mouth;
you are captured by the promises from your mouth.
Because you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands,
go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor.
Do not allow your eyes to sleep,
or your eyelids to slumber.
Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of a hunter,
or like a bird from the hand of a trapper.

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Against Pledges

My child, if you have pledged to your neighbor,
    if you have bound yourself[a] to the stranger,
if you are snared by the sayings of your mouth,
    if you are caught by the sayings of your mouth,
do this, then, my child, and save yourself,
    for you have come into the palm of your neighbor’s hand:[b]
    Go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbor.
Do not give sleep to your eyes,
    or slumber to your eyelids.
Save yourself like a gazelle from a hand,
    or like a bird from the hand of a fowler.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:1 Literally “palms of your hands”
  2. Proverbs 6:3 Literally “the palm of the hand of your neighbor”

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

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17 The friend loves at all times[a],
    but a brother is born for adversity.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 17:17 Hebrew “time”

10 If you fail to act in the day of trouble,
your strength is too little.

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10 If you faint on the day of adversity,
    little is your strength.

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10 Do not abandon your friend or your father’s friend,
and do not go to your brother’s house when disaster strikes you.
A neighbor who is near is better than a brother who is far away.

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10 As for your friend and a friend of your father, do not forsake them,
    and the house of your brother, do not enter on the day of your calamity.
    Better is a close neighbor than a distant brother.

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