1: My son, if thou hast become surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand for 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, since thou hast come into the hand of thy friend: go, humble thyself, and be urgent with thy friend. 4: Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids: 5: deliver thyself as a gazelle 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: which having no chief, overseer, or ruler, 8: provideth her bread in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest. 9: How long, sluggard, wilt thou lie down? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 10: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest! 11: So shall thy poverty come as a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man. 12: A man of Belial, a wicked person, is he that goeth about with a perverse mouth; 13: he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; 14: deceits are in his heart; he deviseth mischief at all times, he soweth discords. 15: Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly: in a moment shall he be broken, and without remedy. 16: These six [things] doth Jehovah hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him: 17: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood; 18: a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations; feet that are swift in running to mischief; 19: a false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discords among brethren. 20: My son, observe thy father's commandment, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother; 21: bind them continually upon thy heart, tie them about thy neck: 22: when thou walkest, 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 a lamp, and the teaching a light, and reproofs of instruction 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 thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids; 26: for by means of a whorish woman [a man is brought] to a loaf of bread, and another's wife doth hunt for the precious soul. 27: Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his garments not be burned? 28: Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be scorched? 29: So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife: whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. 30: They do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry: 31: and if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house. 32: Whoso committeth adultery with a woman is void of understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. 33: A wound and contempt shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away. 34: For jealousy is the rage of a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance; 35: he will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content though thou multipliest [thy] gifts.
