1 My son, if you be surety for your friend, if you have stricken your hand with a stranger,
2 You are snared with the words of your mouth, you are taken with the words of your mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, when you are come into the hand of your friend; go, humble yourself, and make sure your friend.
4 Give not sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.
5 Deliver yourself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise;
7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
8 Provideth her food in the summer, and gathereth her supplies in the harvest.
9 How long wilt you sleep, O sluggard? When wilt you arise out of your sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep;
11 So shall your poverty come as one that travelleth, and your want as an armed man.
12 A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a perverse mouth.
13 He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;
14 Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.
15 Therefore shall his disaster come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.
16 These six things doth יהוה hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto him;
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness who speaketh lies, and he who soweth discord among brethren.
20 My son, keep your father’s command, and forsake not the teaching of your mother;
21 Bind them continually upon your heart, and tie them about your neck.
22 When you goest, it shall lead you; when you sleepest, it shall keep you; and when you awakest, it shall talk with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the Torah is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life;
24 To keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
25 Lust not after her beauty in your heart; neither let her take you with her eyelids.
26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread; and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.
27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
31 But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding; he who doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
33 A wound and dishonor shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy is the rage of a man; therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
35 He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though you givest many gifts.