Proverbs 6

¹My son if thou shalt be surety for thy friend, and hast made fast thy hand to a stranger,

²thou art entrapped with the words of thy mouth, & caught with thine own words.

³Do therefore my son that which I say, and deliver thyself, because thou art fallen into the hand of thy neighbour. Run diverse ways, make haste, raise thy friend.

⁴Give not sleep to thine eyes, neither let thine eye-lids slumber.

⁵Deliver thyself as a little doe from the hand, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the emmot, o sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom.

⁷Who whereas she hath no guide, nor master, nor captain,

⁸prepareth meat for herself in the summer, and gathereth in the harvest for to eat.

⁹How long wilt thou sleep, o sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep?

¹⁰Thou shalt sleep a little, a little shalt thou slumber, a little shalt thou join thy hands to sleep:

¹¹and penury shall come to thee, as a wayfaring man, and poverty as a man armed. But if thou be not sluggish, thy harvest shall come as a fountain, and penury shall fly far from thee.

¹²Aman that is an Apostata, a man unprofitable, goeth with perverse mouth,

¹³winketh with the eyes, treadeth with the foot, speaketh with the finger,

¹⁴with wicked heart he deviseth evil, and at all time he soweth brawls.

¹⁵To him his destruction shall come forthwith, and he shall suddenly be destroyed, neither shall he have remedy any more.

¹⁶Six things there are which our Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth:

¹⁷Lofty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that deviseth most wicked devices, feet swift to run into evil,

¹⁹a deceitful witness that uttereth lies, and him that among brethren soweth discords.

²⁰My son keep the precepts of thy father, and leave not the law of thy mother.

²¹Bind them in thy heart continually, and put them about thy throat.

²²When thou shalt walk, let them go with thee: when thou shalt sleep, let them keep thee, and awaking talk with them.

²³Because the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light, and the way of life the increpation of discipline:

²⁴that they may keep thee from the evil woman, and from the fair spoken tongue of the stranger.

²⁵Let not thy heart covet her beauty, be not caught with her becks:

²⁶for the price of an harlot is scarce worth one loaf: but a woman catcheth the precious soul of man.

²⁷Can a man hide fire in his bosom, that his garments burn not?

²⁸Or walk upon hot coals, that his soles be not burnt?

²⁹so he that goeth in unto his neighbour's wife, shall not be clean when he shall touch her.

³⁰It is no great fault, when a man shall have stolen: for he stealeth to fill his hungry soul:

³¹also being taken he shall restore sevenfold, and shall give up all the substance of his house.

³²But he that is an adulterer, for penury of heart shall destroy his own soul:

³³shame and ignominy he gathereth to himself, & his reproach shall not be blotted out.

³⁴Because the zeal and fury of the husband will not spare in the day of revenge,

³⁵neither will he yield to any man's prayers, neither will he take for redemption very many gifts.