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6:1  My child, if you have put up security for a friend's debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger--
6:2  if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said--
6:3  follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend's mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased.
6:4  Don't put it off; do it now! Don't rest until you do.
6:5  Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net.
6:6  Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise!
6:7  Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work,
6:8  they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
6:9  But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up?
6:10  A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest--
6:11  then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.
6:12  What are worthless and wicked people like? They are constant liars,
6:13  signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye, a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers.
6:14  Their perverted hearts plot evil, and they constantly stir up trouble.
6:15  But they will be destroyed suddenly, broken in an instant beyond all hope of healing.
6:16  There are six things the LORD hates--no, seven things he detests:
6:17  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent,
6:18  a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong,
6:19  a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.
6:20  My son, obey your father's commands, and don't neglect your mother's instruction.
6:21  Keep their words always in your heart. Tie them around your neck.
6:22  When you walk, their counsel will lead you. When you sleep, they will protect you. When you wake up, they will advise you.
6:23  For their command is a lamp and their instruction a light; their corrective discipline is the way to life.
6:24  It will keep you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of a promiscuous woman.
6:25  Don't lust for her beauty. Don't let her coy glances seduce you.
6:26  For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, but sleeping with another man's wife will cost you your life.
6:27  Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire?
6:28  Can he walk on hot coals and not blister his feet?
6:29  So it is with the man who sleeps with another man's wife. He who embraces her will not go unpunished.
6:30  Excuses might be found for a thief who steals because he is starving.
6:31  But if he is caught, he must pay back seven times what he stole, even if he has to sell everything in his house.
6:32  But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool, for he destroys himself.
6:33  He will be wounded and disgraced. His shame will never be erased.
6:34  For the woman's jealous husband will be furious, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
6:35  He will accept no compensation, nor be satisfied with a payoff of any size.