1 - My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
2 - you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth.
3 - So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands: Go - to the point of exhaustion -
4 - Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.
5 - Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
6 - Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
7 - It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,
8 - yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
9 - How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?
10 - A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest -
11 - and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.
12 - A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth,
13 - who winks maliciously with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers,
14 - who plots evil with deceit in his heart - he always stirs up conflict.
15 - Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed - without remedy.
16 - There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:
17 - haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 - a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 - a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
20 - My son, keep your father's command and do not forsake your mother's teaching.
21 - Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck.
22 - When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.
23 - For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life,
24 - keeping you from your neighbor's wife, from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.
25 - Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.
26 - For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man's wife preys on your very life.
27 - Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?
28 - Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?
29 - So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30 - People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
31 - Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
32 - But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself.
33 - Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away.
34 - For jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
35 - He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.