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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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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 adversity.

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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”

Saying Twenty-Five

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

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

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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 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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