CHAPTER 6
1My son, if you stood pledge for your fellow man,
gave your handshake to a stranger,
2you’ve been ensnared by your mouth’s sayings,
trapped by your mouth’s sayings.
3Do this, then, my son, and escape,
for you have fallen into your fellow man’s grasp,
go grovel, and pester your fellow man.
nor slumber to your eyelids.
5Escape like the deer from the hunter,
and the bird from the fowler’s hand.
6Go to the ant, you sluggard,
see its ways and get wisdom.
7For she has no foreman,
no taskmaster nor ruler.
8She readies her bread in summer,
stores up her food at the harvest.
9How long, O sluggard, will you lie there.
When will you rise from your sleep?
10A bit more sleep, a bit more slumber,
a bit more lying with folded arms,
11and your privation will come like a wayfarer,
your want like a shield-bearing man.
12A worthless fellow, a wrongdoing man,
goes about with a crooked mouth,
13winking his eyes, shuffling his feet,
pointing with his fingers,
14perverseness in his heart, plotting evil,
ever fomenting strife.
15Therefore his ruin will come suddenly,
he’ll be broken all at once beyond cure.
16Six things are there that the LORD hates,
and seven He utterly loathes.
17Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands shedding innocent blood,
18a heart plotting wicked designs,
feet hurrying to run to evil,
19a lying deposer, a false witness,
fomenting strife among brothers.
20Keep, my son, your father’s command,
and do not abandon your mother’s teaching.
21Bind them on your heart at all times,
garland them round your neck.
22When you walk about, it will guide you,
when you lie down, it will guard you,
when you wake, it will converse with you.
23For a command is a lamp and teaching a light,
and the way of life—stern rebukes.
24To keep you from your fellow man’s wife,
from the smooth tongue of an alien woman.
25Do not covet her beauty in your heart,
and let her not take you with her eyelids.
26For a whore’s price is no more than a loaf of bread,
but a married woman stalks a precious life.
27Can a man scoop fire into his lap
without his garments burning?
28Can a man walk on glowing coals
without his feet being scorched?
29Thus who comes to bed with his fellow man’s wife,
whoever touches her will not go scot-free.
30Let one not scorn the thief when he robs
to fill his belly when he hungers.
31If he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,
all the wealth of his house he must give.
32Who commits adultery with a woman is senseless,
ruining his life, it is he who does it.
33Blight and disgrace he will find,
and his shame will not be wiped out.
34For jealousy turns into a man’s wrath,
he will show no pity on the day of vengeance.
35He will take no account of ransom,
and will not be content, though you offer large bribes.