1 My son, if you have stood surety for your neighbor, if you have given your hand in pledge for a stranger,
2 you have been trapped by what you said, caught by the words of your mouth.
3 Then do this, my son, and get yourself free, for you have fallen into your neighbor's power: go, humble yourself, and plead urgently with your neighbor.
4 Allow your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;
5 free yourself like a gazelle from the hunter's hand, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you lazybones; watch her ways and grow wise.
7 She has no commander, no overseer or ruler,
8 yet in summer she gets her food ready and in harvest she gathers what she will eat.
9 How long, lazybones, will you lie there? When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A bit of sleep, a bit of slumber, a bit of folding the hands to lie down,
11 and poverty will come on you like a prowler, and need like a man with a shield.
12 A worthless man, a man of iniquity, walks about with a twisted mouth,
13 winking his eyes, scraping his feet, making signs with his fingers;
14 with deceit in his heart he devises evil at all times; he lets loose quarrels.
15 So disaster will come on him all at once; suddenly he will be shattered, with no remedy.
16 There are six things the LORD hates, and seven that his soul abhors:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that spill innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows quarrels among brothers.
20 My son, observe the command of your father, and do not abandon the teaching of your mother.
21 Bind them upon your heart continually; fasten them about your neck.
22 When you walk about, it will guide you; when you lie down, it will keep watch over you; and when you wake, it will speak with you.
23 For the command is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
24 guarding you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the foreigner.
25 Do not crave her beauty in your heart, and do not let her take you captive with her eyelashes;
26 for by a harlot a man is brought down to a loaf of bread, but another man's wife stalks a precious life.
27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothing catching fire?
28 Can a man tread on live coals without his feet being burned?
29 So it is with one who goes in to his neighbor's wife; no one who touches her will escape punishment.
30 Men do not scorn a thief when he steals to fill his stomach because he is hungry;
31 but if he is found out, he must pay back seven times; he must hand over all the goods of his house.
32 The man who commits adultery with a woman has no sense; whoever does it ruins his own soul.
33 Blows and shame are what he will get, and his reproach will never be erased.
34 For jealousy stirs a man's fury, and he will show no mercy on the day of revenge.
35 He will not look at any ransom, nor will he be satisfied, however many gifts you offer.