Parental Counsel
Or have given a handshake for a stranger,
2 If you have been ensnared by the words of your mouth,
Or caught by the words of your mouth,
3 Then do this, my son, and save yourself:
Since you have come into the [a]hand of your neighbor,
Go, humble yourself, and be urgent with your neighbor to free yourself.
4 Give no sleep to your eyes,
Nor slumber to your eyelids;
5 Save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand,
And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Observe its ways and be wise,
7 Which, having no chief,
Officer, or ruler,
8 Prepares its food in the summer
And gathers its provision in the harvest.
9 How long will you lie down, you [c]lazy one?
When will you arise from your sleep?
10 “A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to [d]rest,”
11 Then your poverty will come in like a [e]drifter,
And your need like [f]an armed man.
Is one who walks with a perverse mouth,
13 Who winks with his eyes, who [g]signals with his feet,
Who [h]points with his fingers;
14 Who, with perversion in his heart, continually devises evil,
Who [i]spreads strife.
15 Therefore his disaster will come suddenly;
Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.
Seven that are an abomination [j]to Him:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
19 A false witness who declares lies,
And one who [k]spreads strife among brothers.
And do not ignore the [l]teaching of your mother;
21 Bind them continually on your heart;
Tie them around your neck.
22 When you walk, [m]they will guide you;
When you sleep, [n]they will watch over you;
And when you awake, [o]they will talk to you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the [p]teaching is light;
And rebukes for discipline are the way of life
24 To keep you from the evil woman,
From the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
Nor let her capture you with her eyelids.
26 For the price of a prostitute reduces one to a loaf of bread,
And [q]an adulteress hunts for a precious life.
27 Can anyone take fire in his lap
And his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can a person walk on hot coals
And his feet not be scorched?
29 So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
Whoever touches her will not [r]go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief if he steals
To satisfy [s]himself when he is hungry;
31 But when he is found, he must repay seven times as much;
He must give up all the property of his house.
32 One who commits adultery with a woman is lacking [t]sense;
He who would destroy [u]himself commits it.
33 He will find wounds and disgrace,
And his shame will not be removed.
34 For jealousy [v]enrages a man,
And he will not have compassion on the day of vengeance.
35 He will not [w]accept any settlement,
Nor will he be [x]satisfied though you make it a large gift.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 6:3 Lit palm
- Proverbs 6:6 Lit idle one
- Proverbs 6:9 Lit idle one
- Proverbs 6:10 Lit lie down
- Proverbs 6:11 Lit one who moves about
- Proverbs 6:11 Lit a man with a shield
- Proverbs 6:13 Lit scrapes
- Proverbs 6:13 Lit instructs with
- Proverbs 6:14 Lit sends out
- Proverbs 6:16 Lit of His soul
- Proverbs 6:19 Lit sends out
- Proverbs 6:20 Or law
- Proverbs 6:22 Lit she
- Proverbs 6:22 Lit she
- Proverbs 6:22 Lit she
- Proverbs 6:23 Or law
- Proverbs 6:26 Lit a man’s wife
- Proverbs 6:29 Lit be innocent
- Proverbs 6:30 Lit his soul
- Proverbs 6:32 Lit heart
- Proverbs 6:32 Lit his soul
- Proverbs 6:34 Lit is the rage of
- Proverbs 6:35 Lit lift up the face of any
- Proverbs 6:35 Lit willing