1 My son, if you become surety for your friend, if you have struck your hand with a stranger,
2 You are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, when you have come into the hand of your friend; go, humble yourself, and plead with your friend.
4 Give not sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.
5 Deliver yourself as a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you 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 will you sleep, O sluggard? when will you arise out of your sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
11 So shall your poverty come upon you like a vagabond, and your want like an armed man.
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth.
13 He winks with his eyes, he signals with his feet, he motions with his fingers;
14 Perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually; he sows discord.
15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he 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 your father's commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother:
21 Bind them continually upon your heart, and tie them about your neck.
22 When you go, it shall lead you; when you sleep, it shall keep you; and when you awake, it shall talk with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
24 To keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a seductress.
25 Lust not after her beauty in your heart; neither let her allure you with her eyelids.
26 For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will prey upon his precious life.
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 neighbor's wife; whosoever touches her shall not be innocent.
30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
31 But if he is found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give up all the goods of his house.
32 But whosoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding: he that does it destroys his own soul.
33 A wound and dishonor shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy causes the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he be appeased, though you give many gifts.