¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbour,

if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,

²you have been trapped by what you said,

ensnared by the words of your mouth.

³So do this, my son, to free yourself,

since you have fallen into your neighbour’s hands:

go – to the point of exhaustion – 

and give your neighbour no rest!

⁴Allow no sleep to your eyes,

no slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,

like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard;

consider its ways and be wise!

⁷It has no commander,

no overseer or ruler,

⁸yet it stores its provisions in summer

and gathers its food at harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, you sluggard?

When will you get up from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest –

¹¹and poverty will come on you like a thief

and scarcity like an armed man.

¹²A troublemaker and a villain,

who goes about with a corrupt mouth,

¹³who winks maliciously with his eye,

signals with his feet

and motions with his fingers,

¹⁴who plots evil with deceit in his heart –

he always stirs up conflict.

¹⁵Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant;

he will suddenly be destroyed – without remedy.

¹⁶There are six things the Lord hates,

seven that are detestable to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to rush into evil,

¹⁹a false witness who pours out lies

and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s command

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them always on your heart;

fasten them round your neck.

²²When you walk, they will guide you;

when you sleep, they will watch over you;

when you awake, they will speak to you.

²³For this command is a lamp,

this teaching is a light,

and correction and instruction

are the way to life,

²⁴keeping you from your neighbour’s wife,

from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.

²⁵Do not lust in your heart after her beauty

or let her captivate you with her eyes.

²⁶For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread,

but another man’s wife preys on your very life.

²⁷Can a man scoop fire into his lap

without his clothes being burned?

²⁸Can a man walk on hot coals

without his feet being scorched?

²⁹So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife;

no-one who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals

to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.

³¹Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,

though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

³²But a man who commits adultery has no sense;

whoever does so destroys himself.

³³Blows and disgrace are his lot,

and his shame will never be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,

and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will not accept any compensation;

he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.