Proverbs

¹ My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor, Have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger,

² Have been caught with the words of your mouth,

³ Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and badger your neighbor.

⁴ Nor slumber to your eyelids;

⁵ And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶ Observe her ways and be wise,

⁷ Officer or ruler,

⁸ And gathers her provision in the harvest.

⁹ When will you arise from your sleep?

¹⁰ A little folding of the hands to rest”—

¹¹ And your want like an armed man.

¹² Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth,

¹³ Who points with his fingers;

¹⁴ Who spreads contentions.

¹⁵ Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.

¹⁶ Even seven which are an abomination to Him:

¹⁷ And hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸ Feet that hasten to run to evil,

¹⁹ And one who spreads strife among brothers.

²⁰ My son, observe the commandment of your father And do not abandon the law of your mother;

²¹ Tie them around your neck.

²² When you sleep, they will keep watch over you; And when you awake, they will speak to you.

²³ And reproofs for discipline are the way of life

²⁴ From the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.

²⁵ Nor let her capture you with her eyelids.

²⁶ And an adulteress hunts for the precious life.

²⁷ And his clothes not be burned?

²⁸ And his feet not be scorched?

²⁹ Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.

³⁰ To fill himself when he is hungry;

³¹ He must give all the substance of his house.

³² He who would destroy his soul does it.

³³ And his reproach will not be blotted out.

³⁴ And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

³⁵ He will not be willing though you give many bribes.