1 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.: