Old/New Testament

6 My child, if you have pledged to your neighbor,
    if you have bound yourself^[a] to the stranger,
² if you are snared by the sayings of your mouth,
    if you are caught by the sayings of your mouth,
³ 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.
⁴ Do not give sleep to your eyes,
    or slumber to your eyelids.
⁵ Save yourself like a gazelle from a hand,
    or like a bird from the hand of a fowler.

⁶ Go to the ant, lazy!
    Consider its ways and be wise.
⁷ It has no chief,
    officer, or ruler.
⁸ In the summer, it prepares its food;
    in the harvest, it gathers its sustenance.
⁹ How long will you lie down, lazy?
    When will you rise up from your sleep?
¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands for rest—
¹¹ like a robber^[c] shall your poverty come,
    and what you lack like an armed man.

¹² A worthless man, an evil man,
    goes around with deceitful speech.^[d]
13 Winking in his eye, shuffling in his foot,
    pointing in his fingers,
¹⁴ perversion in his heart, he devises evil;
    at all times he will send out discord.^[e]
15 Upon such a man,^[f] suddenly shall his calamity come;
    in a moment he will be damaged and there is no healing.^[g]

¹⁶ There are six things Yahweh hates,
    and seven things are abominations of his soul:^[h]
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
    and hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸ a devising heart, plans of deception,
    feet that hurry to run to evil,^[i]
19 a false witness who breathes lies
    and sends out discord^[j] between brothers.

²⁰ My child, keep the commandment of your father,
    and do not disregard the instruction of your mother.
²¹ Bind them on your heart continually;
    tie them upon your neck.
²² When you walk,^[k] she^[l] will lead you,
    When you lie down,^[m] she will watch over you,
    and when you awake, she will converse with you.
²³ For like a lamp is a commandment, and instruction is light,
    and the way of life^[n] is the reproof of discipline,
²⁴ in order to preserve you from an evil woman,^[o]
    from the smoothness of the tongue of an adulteress.^[p]
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart;
    may she not capture you with her eyelashes.
²⁶ For the price of a woman, a prostitute,^[q] is the price of a loaf of bread,
    but the woman belonging to a man^[r] hunts precious life.

²⁷ Can a man carry fire in his lap,
    and his clothes not burn?
²⁸ If a man walks upon the hot coals,
    will his feet not be burned?
²⁹ Thus, he who goes to the wife of his neighbor,
    any who touches her shall not go unpunished.
³⁰ People do not despise a thief when he steals
    to fill himself^[s] when he is hungry.
³¹ But if he is found, he will pay sevenfold,
    every possession of his house he shall give.
³² He who commits adultery with a woman lacks sense,^[t]
    he destroys himself^[u] who does it.
³³ A wound and dishonor he will find,
    and his disgrace will not be wiped out.
³⁴ For jealousy is the fury of a husband,
    and he will not show restraint on the day of revenge.
³⁵ He will not accept any compensation,^[v]
    and he will not be willing, though the bribe is large.

7 My child, guard my sayings;
    store my commandments with you.
² Keep my commands and live,
    and my teaching like the apple of your eye.^[w]
3 Bind them on your fingers;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴ Say to wisdom,^[x] “you are my sister,”
    and you shall call insight,^[y] “intimate friend.”^[z]
5 In order to guard yourself from an adulteress,^[aa]
    from the foreigner who makes her words smooth.^[ab]
6 For at the window of my house,
    through my lattice, I looked down.
⁷ And I saw among the simple,
    I observed among the youth,
    a young man lacking sense,^[ac]
8 passing on the street at^[ad] her corner,
    and he takes the road to her house,
⁹ at twilight, at the day’s evening,
    in the midst of night and the darkness.
¹⁰ Then behold! A woman comes to meet him
    with the garment of a prostitute^[ae] and a secret heart.^[af]
11 She is loud and stubborn;
    her feet do not stay at her house.
¹² Now in the street, now in the square,
    at^[ag] every corner she lies in wait.
¹³ She took hold of ^[ah] him and kissed him.
    Her face was impudent, and she said to him,
¹⁴ “Sacrifices of peace offerings are upon me;
    today^[ai] I completed my vows.
¹⁵ So^[aj] I have come out to meet you,
    to seek your face, and I have found you.
¹⁶ With coverings I have adorned my couch,
    spreads of the linen of Egypt;
¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
    aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love making,
    until the morning let us delight in love.
¹⁹ For there is no man^[ak] in his home;
    he has gone on a long journey.^[al]
20 The bag of money he took in his hand,
    for on the day of the full moon he will come home.”
²¹ She persuades him with the greatness of her teachings;
    with her smooth lips she compels him.
²² He goes after her suddenly;
    like an ox to the slaughter he goes,
    and like a stag to the instruction of a fool,
²³ until an arrow pierces his entrails,^[am]
    like a bird rushing into a snare,
    but he does not know that it will cost him his life.^[an]

²⁴ And now, my children, listen to me,
    and be attentive to the sayings of my mouth.
²⁵ May your heart not turn aside to her ways;
    do not stray into her path.
²⁶ For many slain she has laid low,
    and countless^[ao] are all of her killings.
²⁷ The ways of Sheol^[ap] are her house,
    descending to chambers of death.