Practical Warnings

My son, if you have put up (A)security for your neighbor,
    have (B)given your pledge for a stranger,
if you are (C)snared in the words of your mouth,
    caught in the words of your mouth,
then do this, my son, and save yourself,
    for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
    go, hasten,[a] and (D)plead urgently with your neighbor.
(E)Give your eyes no sleep
    and your eyelids no slumber;
save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,[b]
    (F)like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:3 Or humble yourself
  2. Proverbs 6:5 Hebrew lacks of the hunter

Wise advice

My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor
    or shake hands in agreement with a stranger,
    you will be trapped by your words;
    you will be caught by your words.
Do this, my son, to get out of it,
    for you have come under the control of your neighbor.
    So go, humble yourself,[a] and pester your neighbor.
Don’t give sleep to your eyes
    or slumber to your eyelids.
Get yourself free like a gazelle from a hunter,
    like a bird from the hand of a fowler.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:3 Heb uncertain

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

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17 Friends love all the time,
    and kinsfolk are born for times of trouble.

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

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10 If you show yourself weak on a day of distress,
    your strength is too small.

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10 Do not forsake your friend and (A)your father's friend,
    and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity.
(B)Better is a neighbor who is near
    than a brother who is far away.

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10 Don’t desert your friend or a friend of your family;
    don’t go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes.
    Better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.

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