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,

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 adversity.(A)

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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 25

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

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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 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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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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