Proverbs 6

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger,

if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth,

then do this, my son, to free yourself, for you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go, humble yourself, and press your plea with your neighbor.

Allow no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.

Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler,

it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food at harvest.

and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.

A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,

winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers.

With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.

Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in an instant he will be shattered beyond recovery.

My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck.

When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger.

Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house.

He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.

Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away.

For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance.

He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.