Old/New Testament
6 Beni (my son), if thou put up collateral for thy re’a, if thou hast shaken hands in pledge with a zar (stranger),
2 Thou art snared with the words of thy peh (mouth), thou art trapped with the words of thy peh (mouth).
3 Do this now, beni (my son), and deliver thyself, since thou art come into the palm of thy re’a; go, humble thyself, and plead with thy re’a.
4 Give not sheynah to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5 Deliver thyself as a gazelle from the yad [of the hunter], and as a tzippor (bird) from the yad of the fowler.
6 Go to the nemalah (ant), thou atzel (sluggard, lazy one); consider her drakhim (ways), and be chacham (wise);
7 Which having no katzin (officer, leader) or shoter (policeman) or moshel,
8 Prepareth her lechem in the kayitz (summer), and gathereth her food in the katzir (harvest).
9 Ad mosai wilt thou lie down, O atzel (sluggard, lazy one)? When wilt thou arise out of thy sheynah (sleep)?
10 Yet a little sheynot (sleep [pl.]), a little slumber, a little folding of the yadayim to sleep;
11 So shall thy poverty come as a prowler, and thy need as an ish mogen (man of armor).
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, walketh with a perverse peh (mouth).
13 He winketh with his eyes, he shuffleth with his regel, he pointeth with his fingers;
14 Tahpukhot (perversity) is in his lev, he deviseth rah continually; he stirs up midanim (contention, strife, discord [pl.]).
15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be destoyed without marpeh (remedy).
16 These shesh (six) things doth Hashem hate; indeed, shevah (seven) are an abomination unto His Nefesh;
17 Haughty eyes, a lashon sheker, and hands guilty of shefach dahm naki,
18 A lev that deviseth wicked machshevot (plans), raglayim that are swift in running to ra’ah,
19 An ed sheker that speaketh lies, and he that soweth midanim (contention, strife, discords) among achim.
20 Beni (my son), keep the mitzvat Avicha, and forsake not the torat Immecha;
21 Bind them tamid (continually) upon thine lev, and tie them about thy neck.
22 When thou goest, it shall guide thee; when thou sleepest, it shall be shomer over thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
23 For the mitzvah is a ner (lamp); and torah an ohr; and tokhakhot musar (reproofs of discipline) are the Derech Chayyim (Life Lane);
24 To be shomer over thee, keeping thee from the eshet rah, from the smooth lashon of the nokhriyah (strange woman).
25 Lust not after her beauty in thine lev; neither let her allure thee with her eyelids.
26 For by means of an isha zonah a man is reduced to a kikar lechem; and [another] man’s wife will prey on the nefesh yekara (precious soul).
27 Can a man take eish in his kheyk, and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can one walk upon hot coals, and his regel not be burned?
29 So is he that goeth into his eshet re’a; whosoever toucheth her shall not go unpunished.
30 Men do not despise a ganav if he steal to satisfy his nefesh when he is starving;
31 But if he be found out, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give hon (substance, wealth) of his bais;
32 But the no’ef (one who committeth adultery) with an isha lacketh lev [of understanding]; he that doeth it destroyeth his own nefesh.
33 A nega [see Isaiah 53:8 for Moshiach’s nega taken for unfaithful Israel] and dishonor shall he get; and his cherpah (reproach) shall not be wiped away.
34 For kina (jealousy) is the chamat gever (husband’s rage); therefore he will not spare in the yom nakam (day of vengeance).
35 He will not regard kofer (compensation); neither will he be the appeased, though shochad (bribe) be great.
7 Beni (my son), be shomer over my words, and treasure up my mitzvot with thee.
2 Be shomer over my mitzvot, and live, and over my torah as the apple of thine eye.
3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the luach (tablet) of thine lev.
4 Say unto chochmah, Thou art my achot; and call binah (understanding) thy kinsman;
5 That they may be shomer over thee and keep thee from the zarah, from the nokhriyah with her smooth words.
6 For at the chalon (window) of my bais I looked through my lattice,
7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the banim, a na’ar (young man) devoid of lev [of understanding, sense],
8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went on the derech to her bais,
9 In the twilight, at erev, in the black and dark lailah;
10 And, hinei, there met him an isha with the attire of a zonah, and crafty of lev
11 —She is loud and soreret (rebellious, defiant); her raglayim abide not in her bais;
12 Now is she without, now in the rechovot, and lurketh in wait at every pinnah (corner)—
13 So she caught hold of him, and kissed him, and with a brazen ponem said unto him,
14 I have zivkhei shelamim vowed; this yom have I payed my neder.
15 Al ken (therefore) came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with a bedspread of fine linen of Mitzrayim.
17 I have perfumed my mishkav (bed) with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of dodim (loves) until boker; let us delight ourselves with ahavim (loves, pl. of intensity).
19 For the ish (man, i.e., husband) is not b’bais, he is gone a derech merachok (distant journey);
20 He hath taken a bag of kesef with him, and will come back to his bais at the appointed time.
21 By her enticing speech she caused him to yield, with the smoothness of her sfatayim she seduced him.
22 He goeth after her and followeth immediately, as a shor (ox) goeth to tavach (stock yard, slaughter-house), or as the fettered to the musar of the fool;
23 Till a khetz (arrow) strike through his liver; as a tzippor hasteth to the pach (snare), and knoweth not that it is for his nefesh (life).
24 Pay heed unto me now therefore, O ye banim, and attend to the words of my peh (mouth).
25 Let not thine lev turn aside to her drakhim; go not astray in her netivot (trodden paths).
26 For she hath cast down many chalalim (wounded); indeed, many strong men have been slain by her.
27 Her bais is the drakhei Sheol, going down to the chadarim (chambers, rooms) of mavet (death). [T.N. The off-stage character here in chp 7 has been the cuckold. Because of her Ba’al affair, Hashem became the cuckold of Israel even as Hosea became the cuckold of Gomer.]
2 For I decided this in myself: not again to come to you in agmat nefesh (grief). [1C 4:21; 2C 12:21]
2 For if I grieve you, then who is the one cheering me except the one I have caused to have agmat nefesh?
3 And I wrote the iggeret as I did, so that when I came, I should not have agmat nefesh from those who should have brought me simcha; for I have confidence about you all, that my simcha would be the simcha of all of you.
4 For out of much tzoros and of lev (heart) distress I wrote the iggeret to you with many tears [Ac 20:31], not that you should have agmat nefesh, but that you may have da’as of the ahavah in Hashem which I have more abundantly for all of you.
5 Now if anyone has caused agmat nefesh (grief), it is not me he has grieved, but to some extent, not to be too severe he has grieved you all. [1C 5:1]
6 Sufficient to such a man was this onesh (penalty) by the roiv (majority),
7 So that, on the contrary, rather you ought to give selichah (forgiveness) and chozek (strength) to him lest efsher (perhaps) such a one may be swallowed up by overwhelming remorse.
8 Therefore I urge you to confirm to him your ahavah (love).
9 For I wrote the iggeret to this end, that I may have da’as that you are tested and proven, that in all things you have mishma’at (obedience). [2C 7:15; 10:6]
10 Now to anyone whom you give selichah (forgiveness) of anything, I do as well, for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the presence of Moshiach;
11 Lest we should be outsmarted by Hasatan [Lk 22:31]; for we do not lack da’as of his kesharim (conspiracies).
12 But having come to Troas for the purpose of proclaiming the Besuras HaGeulah of Moshiach and a delet (door) to me having been opened by Adoneinu, [YECHEZKEL 20:14; Ac 14:27; 1C 16:9; Co 4:3; Rv 3:8]
13 I did not have shalom in my neshamah when I was not able to find Titos my Ach b’Moshiach. So I took leave of them and I went on to Macedonia.[Ac 20:1]
14 But Baruch Hashem, the One in whom we are given the nitzachon (victory), Who always leads us in triumph in Moshiach and, through us, in every place spreads the fragrance of the da’as of Him.
15 For we are the aroma of Moshiach to Hashem among the ones coming to Yeshu’at Eloheinu, and among the ones perishing:[1C 1:18; DANIEL 12:2]
16 To the latter ones a fragrance of mavet unto mavet; but to the former ones a fragrance of Chayyim (life) unto Chayyim [Lk 2:34]. Who is sufficient for these things? [2C 3:5-6]
17 For we are not as many, peddling the dvar Hashem, but as from sincerity, as from Hashem, in the presence of Hashem, in Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach we speak. [2C 1:12; 1K 4:11]
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