1 MY son, if you have become surety for your friend, if you have obligated yourself to a stranger,

2 Then you are snared with the words of your mouth, you are caught with the words of your lips.

3 Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself because, for the sake of your friend, you have fallen into the hands of your enemies; go, therefore, and stir up your friend for whom you have become surety to meet his obligation.

4 You shall not give sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids.

5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the snare, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Be like the ant, consider her ways, and be wise;

7 Though having no harvest and no ruler over her, neither any one to guide her,

8 She provides her bread in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.

9 How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?

10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands on the chest;

11 And then poverty shall come upon you, and distress shall overtake you; become a successful man.

12 A fool, a wicked man, is unscrupulous.

13 He winks with his eyes, he signals with his feet, he makes signs with his fingers;

14 He is perverse in his heart, he devises mischief continually; he sows discord.

15 Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly will he be broken without remedy.

16 There are six things which the LORD hates; yea, the seventh is an abomination to him:

17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.

18 A heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

19 A false witness who speaks lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

20 My son, keep your father's commandment and do not forsake the law of your mother;

21 Impress them firmly on your heart and tie them about your neck.

22 When you walk, let them follow you; let them be with you, keep them that they may keep you; and when you awake, meditate on them.

23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is a light, and the 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 Do not lust after her beauty in your heart; neither let her snare you with her eyes, nor let her captivate you with her eyelids.

26 For the appearance of a harlot is tempting like a loaf of bread; and the adulteress hunts for the precious life.

27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

28 Can one walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife and touches her; he shall not be innocent.

30 No one wonders at a thief when he is caught stealing, for he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry;

31 But if he is caught, he shall pay sevenfold; he shall give all the goods of his house.

32 But he who commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding, and he destroys his own soul.

33 And he who does it brings dishonor upon himself; and his reproach shall not be wiped out.

34 For jealousy provokes a man's rage; therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

35 He will not regard any ransom; nor will he listen, though you increase the bribe.