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6:1  My son, if you have become surety to your neighbor, given your hand in pledge to another,
6:2  You have been snared by the utterance of your lips, caught by the words of your mouth;
6:3  So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s power: Go, hurry, rouse your neighbor!
6:4  Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids;
6:5  Free yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, or like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6:6  Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn wisdom;
6:7  For though she has no chief, no commander or ruler,
6:8  She procures her food in the summer, stores up her provisions in the harvest.
6:9  How long, O sluggard, will you lie there? when will you rise from your sleep?
6:10  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest—
6:11  Then poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like a brigand.
6:12  Scoundrels, villains, are they who deal in crooked talk.
6:13  Shifty of eye, feet ever moving, pointing with fingers,
6:14  They have perversity in their hearts, always plotting evil, sowing discord.
6:15  Therefore their doom comes suddenly; in an instant they are crushed beyond cure.
6:16  There are six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to him;
6:17  Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
6:18  A heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that are quick to run to evil,
6:19  The false witness who utters lies, and the one who sows discord among kindred.
6:20  Observe, my son, your father’s command, and do not reject your mother’s teaching;
6:21  Keep them fastened over your heart always, tie them around your neck.
6:22  When you lie down they will watch over you, when you wake, they will share your concerns; wherever you turn, they will guide you.
6:23  For the command is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and a way to life are the reproofs that discipline,
6:24  Keeping you from another’s wife, from the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.
6:25  Do not lust in your heart after her beauty, do not let her captivate you with her glance!
6:26  For the price of a harlot may be scarcely a loaf of bread, But a married woman is a trap for your precious life.
6:27  Can a man take embers into his bosom, and his garments not be burned?
6:28  Or can a man walk on live coals, and his feet not be scorched?
6:29  So with him who sleeps with another’s wife— none who touches her shall go unpunished.
6:30  Thieves are not despised if out of hunger they steal to satisfy their appetite.
6:31  Yet if caught they must pay back sevenfold, yield up all the wealth of their house.
6:32  But those who commit adultery have no sense; those who do it destroy themselves.
6:33  They will be beaten and disgraced, and their shame will not be wiped away;
6:34  For passion enrages the husband, he will have no pity on the day of vengeance;
6:35  He will not consider any restitution, nor be satisfied by your many bribes.