Old/New Testament
6 ¶ My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
2 thou art snared with the words of thy mouth; thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, for thou hast fallen into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5 Escape as a roe from the hand of the hunter and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 ¶ Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise,
7 Who having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8 provides her food in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.
9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travels and thy want as an armed man.
12 ¶ A wicked man of Belial walks with a perverse mouth.
13 He winks with his eyes, he speaks with his feet, he teaches with his fingers;
14 there is perversion in his heart; he devises evil continually; he sows discord.
15 Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.
16 These six things does the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in running to evil,
19 a false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brethren.
20 ¶ My son, keep thy father’s commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother:
21 Bind them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy neck.
22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
23 For the commandment is fire, and the law is light; and reproofs of chastening are the way of life,
24 to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyes.
26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is reduced to a piece of bread, and the woman will hunt the precious soul of the man.
27 Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
29 So is he that goes in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever touches her shall not be innocent.
30 Men do not take a thief lightly, even if he steals to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
31 and once he is taken, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
32 But whosoever commits adultery with a woman has a fault in his heart; he that does it corrupts his own soul.
33 A wound and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall never be wiped away.
34 For the jealous rage of a man will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he want to forgive, though thou givest many bribes.
7 ¶ My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
3 Bind them upon thy fingers; write them upon the tablet of thine heart.
4 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, and call understanding thy kinswoman:
5 That they may keep thee from the woman belonging to someone else, from the stranger who flatters with her words.
6 ¶ For at the window of my house I looked through my casement
7 and beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
8 passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
9 in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night;
10 and, behold, a woman met him with the attire of a harlot, and subtil of heart.
11 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet do not abide in her house:
12 Now without, now in the streets, she lies in wait at every corner.)
13 So she caught him and kissed him and with an impudent face said unto him,
14 I had promised sacrifices of peace; today I have paid my vows.
15 Therefore I came 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 carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves.
19 For the husband is not at home; he is gone a long journey:
20 He has taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the appointed feast day.
21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield; with the flattering of her lips she persuaded him.
22 He went after her straightway, as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,
23 until the arrow pierces through his liver. He is as a bird struggling in the snare and not knowing that it is against his own life.
24 ¶ Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye sons, and attend to the words of my mouth.
25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways; do not go astray in her paths.
26 For she has caused many to fall down dead; yea, all the strong men have been slain by her.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.
2 ¶ But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in grief.
2 For if I make you grieve, who is he then that shall make me glad, but the same who is grieved by me?
3 And I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have grief from those of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know how much more charity I have towards you.
5 ¶ But if any have caused me grief, he has not grieved me, but in part, that I may not put a burden on you all.
6 Sufficient to such a one is this reprehension, which was inflicted of many.
7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with too much grief.
8 Therefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your charity toward him.
9 For to this end also I wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things.
10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also; for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ,
11 lest Satan should deceive us, for we do not ignore his devices.
12 ¶ Having come to Troas for the gospel of the Christ, even though a door was opened unto me in the Lord,
13 I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from there into Macedonia.
14 Now thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph in the Christ and makes manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in those that are saved and in those that perish;
16 to the one we are the savour of death unto death and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
17 For we are not as many, false merchandisers of the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
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