[1] My child, if you have put up security for a friend’s debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger—
[2] if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said—
[3] follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased.
[4] Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do.
[5] Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net.
[6] Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise!
[7] Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work,
[8] they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
[9] But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up?
[10] A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—
[11] then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.
[12] What are worthless and wicked people like? They are constant liars,
[13] signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye, a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers.
[14] Their perverted hearts plot evil, and they constantly stir up trouble.
[15] But they will be destroyed suddenly, broken in an instant beyond all hope of healing.
[16] There are six things the Lord hates— no, seven things he detests:
[17] haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent,
[18] a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong,
[19] a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.
[20] My son, obey your father’s commands, and don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.
[21] Keep their words always in your heart. Tie them around your neck.
[22] When you walk, their counsel will lead you. When you sleep, they will protect you. When you wake up, they will advise you.
[23] For their command is a lamp and their instruction a light; their corrective discipline is the way to life.
[24] It will keep you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of a promiscuous woman.
[25] Don’t lust for her beauty. Don’t let her coy glances seduce you.
[26] For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, but sleeping with another man’s wife will cost you your life.
[27] Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire?
[28] Can he walk on hot coals and not blister his feet?
[29] So it is with the man who sleeps with another man’s wife. He who embraces her will not go unpunished.
[30] Excuses might be found for a thief who steals because he is starving.
[31] But if he is caught, he must pay back seven times what he stole, even if he has to sell everything in his house.
[32] But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool, for he destroys himself.
[33] He will be wounded and disgraced. His shame will never be erased.
[34] For the woman’s jealous husband will be furious, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
[35] He will accept no compensation, nor be satisfied with a payoff of any size.