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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.