1: My son! if thou hast been surety for thy friend, Hast stricken for a stranger thy hand, 2: Hast been snared with sayings of thy mouth, Hast been captured with sayings of thy mouth, 3: Do this now, my son, and be delivered, For thou hast come into the hand of thy friend. Go, trample on thyself, and strengthen thy friend, 4: Give not sleep to thine eyes, And slumber to thine eyelids, 5: Be delivered as a roe from the hand, And as a bird from the hand of a fowler. 6: Go unto the ant, O slothful one, See her ways and be wise; 7: Which hath not captain, overseer, and ruler, 8: She doth prepare in summer her bread, She hath gathered in harvest her food. 9: Till when, O slothful one, dost thou lie? When dost thou arise from thy sleep? 10: A little sleep, a little slumber, A little clasping of the hands to rest, 11: And thy poverty hath come as a traveller, And thy want as an armed man. 12: A man of worthlessness, a man of iniquity, Walking [with] perverseness of mouth, 13: Winking with his eyes, speaking with his feet, Directing with his fingers, 14: Frowardness [is] in his heart, devising evil at all times, Contentions he sendeth forth. 15: Therefore suddenly cometh his calamity, Instantly he is broken -- and no healing. 16: These six hath Jehovah hated, Yea, seven [are] abominations to His soul. 17: Eyes high -- tongues false -- And hands shedding innocent blood -- 18: A heart devising thoughts of vanity -- Feet hasting to run to evil -- 19: A false witness [who] doth breathe out lies -- And one sending forth contentions between brethren. 20: Keep, my son, the command of thy father, And leave not the law of thy mother. 21: Bind them on thy heart continually, Tie them on thy neck. 22: In thy going up and down, it leadeth thee, In thy lying down, it watcheth over thee, And thou hast awaked -- it talketh [with] thee. 23: For a lamp [is] the command, And the law a light, And a way of life [are] reproofs of instruction, 24: To preserve thee from an evil woman, From the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. 25: Desire not her beauty in thy heart, And let her not take thee with her eyelids. 26: For a harlot consumeth unto a cake of bread, And an adulteress the precious soul hunteth. 27: Doth a man take fire into his bosom, And are his garments not burnt? 28: Doth a man walk on the hot coals, And are his feet not scorched? 29: So [is] he who hath gone in unto the wife of his neighbour, None who doth touch her is innocent. 30: They do not despise the thief, When he stealeth to fill his soul when he is hungry, 31: And being found he repayeth sevenfold, All the substance of his house he giveth. 32: He who committeth adultery [with] a woman lacketh heart, He is destroying his soul who doth it. 33: A stroke and shame he doth find, And his reproach is not wiped away, 34: For jealousy [is] the fury of a man, And he doth not spare in a day of vengeance. 35: He accepteth not the appearance of any atonement, Yea, he doth not consent, Though thou dost multiply bribes!
